Former Port Townsend resident Bereket Piatt faces more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in Snohomish County Superior Court to assault and robbery.

Piatt, 21, was charged by the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office with second-degree assault, first-degree robbery and harassment (threats to kill) after the Jan. 23, 2013 armed robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Everett.

According to Snohomish court documents, he pleaded guilty to all three counts on May 30, and was sentenced June 27. He was sentenced to 61 months in prison for the robbery charge, and 17 and 12 months for the assault and harassment charges respectively.

The sentences are to be served concurrently, with time served detracting from the total 61 months. Piatt was booked Jan. 31, 2013 so he can expect to spend a little over four and a half years in prison. He was also sentenced to a period of community custody upon his release.

Piatt is a 2011 Port Townsend High School graduate, known to be quiet and friendly as a teen. He starred in high school and collegiate track, and had been attending Everett Community College.

CASE HISTORY

According to court documents, Piatt abducted a 16-year-old female Everett Community College student at gunpoint as she was walking to her car on Jan. 23. He ordered her to get in the car and drive him around the streets of north Everett until they reached a Wells Fargo bank.

He told the student he knew her license plate number and would find her and kill her if she drove away. Piatt then entered the bank, where he approached a teller and handed over a note demanding $9,000. Included on the note was a threat that the teller would be killed if he did not cooperate, according to court documents.

The teller handed over $8,000 in cash, and Piatt fled the bank, got into the female student’s car and had her drop him off near the Providence Hospital Colby Campus. He was arrested Jan. 31 in Tacoma and brought back to the Snohomish County Jail.

According to court documents, Piatt owes $600 in legal fees. His sentencing documents include no-contact orders for the bank teller and the female student upon Piatt’s release.

FAMILY STATEMENT

Here is part of a statement that Piatt's adoptive parents, John Piatt and Nancy Naslund, sent to the judge: "We know that the crimes to which Bereket pled guilty were serious crimes, and we would not diminish their gravity nor make excuses for their commission. We were, and still are, shocked that Bereket would commit such serious crimes and threaten innocent people in the process. As parents of six young adults, our hearts go out to the victims of Bereket’s behavior, and to their parents and families. We are so sorry for what they experienced, and pray they recover fully and soon from the violence perpetrated upon them.

“Nonetheless, we love Bereket and care deeply about what his future will bring, and so we plead for leniency in sentencing.

“Our family knows Bereket as a brother, son, nephew and grandson. We know Bereket as someone who survived terrible personal tragedies as a boy in Ethiopia, and who struggled long and hard to transition to life in America. He showed admirable personal qualities of self-motivation, sacrifice and perseverance to become a champion in track and cross-country in middle school, high school, and college. And while he worked hard in the classrooms as well, he struggled to catch up with his cohorts in academics, having missed out on so much education in Ethiopia. He also struggled with clinical depression, especially during winter months, and found it difficult to look beyond his day-to-day accomplishments.

“We hope and pray that Bereket has not wandered down a one-way street; that Bereket can return from his errant path and still make good in society. To return to the fold of his family in Washington and Canada, to become a productive member of society, to marry and raise children of his own, and to make restitution in some fashion for the hurtful choices he made this past year. With that hope in mind, we again plead for leniency and assignment to a facility where this young man can find some help to turn his life around, and get back on track to eventually lead a healthy, normal life.”