Steven Paul Harston

A Bowling Green man admitted in court Thursday to robbing three banks in the city over a seven-month period.

Steven Paul Harston, 49, pleaded guilty in Warren Circuit Court to three counts of first-degree robbery and three counts of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

Harston was scheduled to go to trial next month on the charges, but instead stood with his attorney, Walter Hawkins, and acknowledged his role in three robberies – the June 20, 2012, robbery of American Bank and Trust on Fairview Avenue, the Aug. 8, 2012, robbery of U.S. Bank on Lane Avenue, and the Jan. 3, 2013, robbery of First Security Bank on Chestnut Street.

“I went in, brandished a handgun, asked for money from all the tellers and I left,” Harston said, describing what he did in the U.S. Bank robbery.

Harston also admitted to brandishing a gun at employees at American Bank and Trust and leaving with money, but said the circumstances surrounding the First Security Bank robbery differed.

“I went in. I didn’t brandish a handgun, but I had it in my waistband,” Harston said of the final robbery.

Bowling Green police had investigated Harston in connection with the American Bank and Trust robbery, having recovered a bicycle, shoes, a sweatshirt and a black hockey mask outside the business.

Surveillance footage from the scene taken in the aftermath of that robbery shows a man on a bicycle entering some bushes where a small truck was parked. The truck pulled away moments later, according to court records.

During the investigation, police interviewed a man identified in court records as a friend of Harston’s who said he saw him handling large stacks of cash on more than one occasion.

Harston asked the man to move some items from one storage unit to a larger unit and the man told police he suspected the items were stolen, court records show.

DNA recovered from the sweatpants at the scene matched a DNA sample from Harston, which city police learned on the same day that First Security Bank was robbed.

In that incident, a man dressed in a black shirt and jeans and wearing black gloves, a mask and sunglasses walked into the bank, raised his shirt to expose the handle of a pistol and demanded money.

Police examined evidence in the First Security case for similarities to the American Bank and Trust robbery, and found surveillance footage from nearby Mellow Mushroom that showed a man in dark clothing getting into an occupied car that pulled away immediately afterward, court records show.

Harston was formally charged with the U.S. Bank robbery in November.

Forensic evidence recovered from the scene by police tied Harston to that robbery as well, leading Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron to present that case to the grand jury.

In the U.S. Bank robbery, a man in sunglasses, a surgical mask and a Tyvek suit, which is normally worn during exposure to or handling of hazardous materials, approached the counter and demanded money, according to police. The hood of the suit was pulled over the robber’s head.

Cohron has recommended a 20-year prison sentence for Harston, who would be required to serve 17 years before becoming eligible for consideration for parole.

Harston had faced a potential life sentence with no chance at parole for 20 years had the case gone to trial, Cohron said.

Harston has prior convictions in California in 1986 for bank robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, a federal case for which he netted five years in prison followed by five years of probation, and in 1990 for eluding a police officer, assault with a firearm and two counts of false imprisonment, for which he was sentenced in state court to 12 years in prison.

Warren Circuit Judge John Grise will sentence Harston on June 24.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.