news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A Greensboro man will spend more than 10 years in prison for running over and shooting a police officer during a chase and shootout after a bank robbery in 2009.

Christopher O'Neal Patterson, 25, entered an Alford plea this morning to charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a law enforcement officer and fleeing and eluding for the Feb. 9, 2009 chase. He also pleaded guilty to burning a public building and assault with a deadly weapon for setting fire to his High Point jail cell and attacking a detention officer in January 2010.

Several other charges, including attempted first-degree murder, were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

In an Alford plea, the defendent does not admit guilt, but acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict or the plea is in their best interests.

The state sentence is in addition to 62 years Patterson received last October in federal court related to a series of armed robberies of stores and banks in Greensboro, High Point and Burlington in January and February of 2009.

Patterson also still faces up to another eight years in federal prison for spitting on a prosecutor after his sentencing on the armed robberies.

Read more in Wednesday's News & Record or e-Edition.