WUFT News News and Public Media for North Central Florida from the University of Florida in Gainesville
The man who police say led them on a high-speed chase through southwest Gainesville last summer will spend the next 20 years in state prison.
According to court records, Circuit Judge William E. Davis on Friday sentenced William Kyle Rossignol after he entered a plea of no contest on charges of attempted robbery, eluding police, grand theft of a motor vehicle and burglary of an unoccupied structure.
Rossignol is 32 and agreed to a plea bargain on the charges.
Police said he tried on July 16, 2016, to rob the Campus USA credit union at UF Health Shands. He fled by car down Southwest Archer Road, SW 34th Street, and Williston Road before ending up near Lexington Crossing Apartments, where residents were not permitted to return home for nearly six hours.
As night fell, GPD’s marked patrol cars cleared out. Undercover officers then arrested Rossignol when they say he came out of hiding near the intersection of SW 31st Drive and 41st Place.
Rossignol previously served eight months in state prison for grand theft with a firearm. Friday’s sentence consisted of 15 years for the July bank robbery and chase incident and five years for a November 2015 theft at Gainesville Police Department headquarters.
Editor’s note: A version of this story previously stated Rossignol received a 15-year sentence. The judge also ordered him to serve an additional five years for an unrelated grand theft charge.
