A Vicksburg man who admitted robbing a branch of Trustmark Bank in 2010 was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday for bank robbery and a violation of the terms of his probation for a previous armed robbery conviction.

Christopher Marcel Johnson, 27, who gave his address as 1919 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., but was believed to have stayed in various city motels in the month before his arrest, had been scheduled for trial today for armed robbery in Warren County Circuit Court.

Instead, Johnson accepted District Attorney Ricky Smith’s offer to plead guilty to the lesser charge of robbery and the agreed revocation.

Johnson confessed to the Sept. 24, 2010, robbery at 1020 Mission 66, in which a dye pack placed in the container with the money exploded after he left the bank and ran to his car, which he had parked nearby on Grove Street.

Smith said the deal was offered because a key witness, whom police said identified a vehicle matching Johnson’s leaving the area immediately after the robbery, could not be found to testify at the trial. In addition, the investigator who interrogated Johnson after his arrest is no longer with the police department, Smith said.

“Rather than taking a chance at getting a not guilty verdict at a trial, we felt that a conviction with some time served would be proper,” Smith said. “Along with his previous convictions, it means that if Johnson is ever convicted again he would face life in prison as a habitual offender.”

Presiding Judge M. James Chaney sentenced Johnson to the DA-recommended 10 years in prison with five years suspended, followed by three years of probation. He will pay $3,959 in restitution to Trustmark and $322.50 in court fees.

If convicted of armed robbery, Johnson could have been given a life sentence, said Smith.

Johnson’s probation was from a 2004 conviction for armed robbery. For violating its terms, Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick sentenced Johnson to serve three years in prison consecutive to the robbery sentence, Smith said.

Johnson has been in the Warren County Jail since Sept. 25, 2010, the day after the Trustmark robbery, when police arrested him after spotting a car matching his.

Police also had been alerted that currency stained from the dye pack had been recovered from a cash/change machine at Ameristar Casino and traced back to Johnson, Smith said.

“Through surveillance tapes we were able to trace him all the way back to his car,” he said. Ameristar then notified other casinos in the city, and similarly dyed bills were recovered at DiamondJacks and Rainbow casinos, the DA said.