The ex-con, who famously strolled out of a Manhattan courthouse in a spectacular 2009 getaway, was sentenced to a maximum of life in prison Thursday for a robbery spree. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Escape artist Ronald Tackman couldn’t walk away from trouble this time.
“It’s clear, Mr. Tackman, that you have amassed a record for having committed several felonies, including violent felonies,” said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers.
“Now you must pay a severe but entirely justifiable penalty.”
Tackman, 57, won’t become eligible for parole until he’s 82 under his term of 28 years to life. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 60 years to life.
RONALD TACKMAN’S WELL-SUITED ESCAPE PLAN: ROBBER WALKS RIGHT OUT OF MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT!
The sentencing followed Tackman’s conviction for five robberies and an attempted robbery between December 2007 and April 2008 – mostly on small Upper East Side chain-store branches.
Tackman wore fake noses, fake glasses and dressed as a cowboy to hide his face during the holdups. He carried plastic cigarette lighters that resembled a gun – and fought with one store owner who smashed Tackman’s pretend weapon.
Before the June trial, Tackman pleaded guilty to the 2009 escape where he donned a suit and conned court officers into believing he was a defense attorney.
To complete his ensemble, Tackman pulled black socks over his orange prison slippers.
Tackman’s escape promoted a massive 36-hour manhunt ending with his arrest.
He ditched the suit at his elderly mom’s East Side apartment, but was busted a day later while exiting a city bus with a knife and crack cocaine in his pockets.
An admitted drug addict who suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis and diabetes, Tackman was first jailed in 1985 for robbery – and spent 22 years behind bars after twice attempting to escape.
In September 1985 he tried to shoot his way out of a prison van using a rubber band-powered zip gun fashioned out of metal tubing and a comb.
In April of that year, Tackman briefly took over another prison van by brandishing an “extremely realistic” but bogus gun fashioned out of soap.
“He’s a thief that puts people in harm’s way,” said prosecutor Charles Whitt. “He’s a man that has spent his entire adult life committing crimes – and there is no indication that if he were to ever get out of prison that he would do anything else but commit more crimes.”
Tackman began his final series of robberies, sticking up a women’s dress store, an ice cream parlor and a Dunkin’ Donuts, soon after his 2006 release from state prison.
