APar 06/16 2350 Harrelson Sentenced By JEFF MEYER Associated Press Writer FARGO, N.D. (AP)

APar 06/16 2350 Harrelson Sentenced

   By JEFF MEYER Associated Press Writer

   FARGO,  N.D.  (AP) -- A man who was on the FBI's "Most Wanted"
list and admitted robbing  banks  in  six  states  was  sentenced
Tuesday  to  34  years in prison, while an accomplice received an
11-year sentence.

   Thomas G. Harrelson, 29, who has said he robbed the banks  out
of  frustration  with  his  life  and  the  government, showed no
outward reaction as U.S. District Judge Patrick Conmy handed down
the sentence.

   "It (the sentence) may be a terrible waste but is  called  for
under   the   circumstances,"  said  Conmy,  who  referred  to  a
psychologist's  report  that  described  Harrelson  as  having  a
"sociopathic personality."

   Harrelson,  in  a  plea  bargain  with  authorities,  admitted
masterminding the robberies of nine banks in six states during  a
1 1/2-year span.

   He  and  two  other people were arrested Feb. 19 after robbing
the Drayton State Bank in eastern North Dakota of  $2,807.    The
arrest  was  made  after a bank employee chased the trio, who had
taken a family of four hostage.

   Harrelson was sentenced to  17  years  for  the  North  Dakota
charge.   He  also  received  15 years for each of the charges in
four other states, which will run at the same time as  the  North
Dakota sentence.

   He  was  given another 17 years for robbing the First National
Bank in  Rossville,  Ill.,  an  incident  that  culminated  in  a
shootout between  Harrelson  and  a  police  officer.  No one was
injured in the gunbattle.

   The   North   Dakota   and   Illinois   sentences   will   run
consecutively.  He will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

   The  other banks involved in the plea bargain included Worthen
Bank and Trust Co. of Little Rock, Ark.; Community State Bank  of
Fowlerville, Mich.; Independent Bank of South Michigan in Leslie,
Mich.;  City  Bank  & Trust Co. branch bank in Springport, Mich.;
First National Bank of Northwest Ohio in Fayette,  Ohio;  Farmers
and  Merchants  State Bank in Delta, Ohio; and Peoples State Bank
in Warren, Minn.

   "It was a very tough sentence.  The message was  very  clear,"
said Harrelson's  attorney,  William  D.  Yuill.   Asked what the
message was, Yuill said: "That he's (Conmy) a law and order man."

   U.S. Attorney J. William Roberts  of  Springfield,  Ill.,  who
represented  the  government  in  the  Illinois  case,  which was
considered separately from the others, expressed satisfaction  in
the sentence.

   Earlier,  Roberts  had called Harrelson a "bright, intelligent
person, but a crafty young man."

   "He knowingly chose to live his life outside the law ... as  a
predator,"  Roberts  said.  "This  man can simply not play by the
rules."

   Harrelson, who told a reporter that he  once  hoped  to  study
philosophy  and  teach  gifted  children,  declined when asked by
Conmy if he wanted to give a statement to the court.

   But in a series of interviews  with  the  Grand  Forks  (N.D.)
Herald  from his jail cell while he awaited sentencing, Harrelson
had described the many bank robberies  as  "a  guerrilla  assault
against the government."

   Harrelson  at  one  time  was  linked to the white supremacist
group the Aryan Nations.    But  Yuill  said  his  client's  only
connection  with  any  white  supremacist  group  was when he was
engaged to the former leader of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan.

   Meanwhile, one of Harrelson's two accomplices in  the  Drayton
robbery was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison.

   Stuart Skarda was sentenced to 10 years for hostage-taking and
one  year  for  possession  of  a  firearm  by a convicted felon.
Skarda's attorney, Paul Sortland, has filed motions for acquittal
and a new trial.

   The third defendant in the case, Cynthia Ehrlich, is serving a
six-year term in Lexington, Ky.  She pleaded  guilty  in  a  plea
agreement with authorities to having committed the robbery.

   
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