A Murfreesboro man, Frederick Eugene Carney, aged 34, has received a 32-year federal prison sentence following multiple armed robberies across Middle Tennessee, Acting United States Attorney Thomas J. Jaworski for the Middle District of Tennessee confirmed last Friday. A spree of violent crimes by Carney included the armed robberies of Cash Express businesses in Ardmore and Greenbrier, as well as Regions Bank in Smyrna, and the First Horizon Bank in Nashville where he discharged a firearm striking a door, between March 24 and May 2, 2022.
Carney, whose crimes garnered him convictions for robbery, bank robbery, illegal ammunition possession, and utilizing a firearm during a violent crime, will now be off the streets for several decades, providing relief to the communities he terrorized. William John Ewing III, a 27-year-old from Nashville, was also implicated in these robberies and found guilty of his part in the bank robbery at Regions Bank where over $15,000 in currency was stolen by him and Carney, he is slated for sentencing on January 23, 2025, which could result in 7 years or life in federal prison.
In the wake of these robbers' apprehension, Jaworski expressed a stern warning and a clear stance from the justice department, stating, "This sentence sends another strong message to those who commit violent crimes in our district that we will prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Jaworski further thanked the broad coalition of law enforcement agencies, spanning multiple jurisdictions, for their collaborative efforts in securing this prosecutorial success.
The law enforcement partnership included the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Nashville Field Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and several local police departments from Murfreesboro, Ardmore, Greenbrier, Smyrna to Moulton in Alabama, which played a pivotal role in the series of investigations that led to Carney's capture and conviction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Montminy was credited for prosecuting the case, which now concludes with Carney's lengthy sentence.
