Prison hallway. Prison sentences handed down. (Source: Shutterstock)

A Tennessee federal judge sentenced Antonio Johnson last week to 36 years in prison for his role in kidnapping a credit union employee and her three-year-old child and robbing more than $400,000 from a Memphis branch of the $760 million First South Financial Credit Union based in Bartlett.

Johnson, 44, and two others, Travis Jackson, 37, and Shalundra Johnson, 39, were found guilty of multiple felony charges of kidnapping and bank robbery by force or violence earlier this year following a four-day jury trial, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Murphy Jr. for the Western District of Tennessee in Memphis, said Monday. The jury also found Johnson and Jackson guilty on several firearms felonies.

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U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl H. Lipman in Memphis sentenced Shalundra Johnson to 11.6 years in prison on Sept. 1, and on Sept. 3, Judge Lipman also sentenced Jackson to 45.3 years, according to court documents.

There is no parole in the federal system.

On April 4, 2019, an employee of the First South Financial branch on East Shelby Drive in Memphis arrived at her home in Horn Lake, Miss., at about 6:15 p.m. Johnson and Jackson entered the victim's home, zip-tied her hands and demanded keys to the credit union branch.

The victim, along with her three-year-old child, were then forced into her car and driven away. Eventually, she was taken to the credit union branch from which $425,000 was stolen, prosecutors said.

Shalundra Johnson placed a tracking device on the victim's vehicle for Johnson and Jackson to determine where she lived.

What's more, the trio committed two other kidnappings and bank robberies.

On Sept. 14, 2018, when an employee of Trustmark Bank on Elvis Presley Boulevard got off work from her second job and arrived home, a male with a firearm grabbed her and pushed her inside of the residence. The victim was zip-tied and taken to the bank to complete the robbery where approximately $73,400 was taken, prosecutors said.

And on Dec. 7, 2018, when an employee of the First Tennessee Bank on Elvis Presley Boulevard arrived home from work, a male wearing a mask approached the victim's vehicle and then forced her at gunpoint into the passenger seat and drove her to a location near the bank. The victim was then zip-tied and taken to the bank from which $110,435 was stolen.

Prosecutors said cell phone records, tracking device information, DNA evidence and other evidence recovered from the victims' homes proved the involvement of the defendants in the robberies and kidnappings.

Court documents did not indicate whether the victims, including the credit union employee and her child, were physically harmed during the kidnappings and robberies. A media spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Memphis did not return CU Times' phone request Tuesday for additional information.

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Peter Strozniak

Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.