DALLAS (April 23, 2009)—Donald Ray Williams, 53, who was arrested last month in Rosebud after a year-and-a-half search, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Dallas to charges stemming from an armored car heist in September 2007 in which nearly $2 million was stolen, acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks said.

Williams pleaded guilty to one count of interference with commerce by threats or violence and one count of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during or in relation to a crime of violence, Jacks said.

He could be sentenced to as much as life in prison and fined as much as $500,000, Jacks said.

FBI agents arrested Williams on March 15 at a home in Rosebud in Falls County.

Jacks said Williams admitted that he and others who took part in the robbery divided up the stolen money and said his share was about $300,000.

He had about $9,000 of the stolen cash with him when he was arrested, Jacks said.

Authorities found another $27,000 where Williams had been staying in the days before his arrest, Jacks said.

Williams told investigators he had used some of the stolen money to purchase a BMW for himself, and a Volkswagen for his girlfriend, Jacks said.

Freddy Lee Foots, who was arrested days after the robbery at the end of a long-distance, high-speed chase that ended in Van Horn, had more than $400,000 of the stolen cash.

Authorities found another $145,000 in a vehicle that was accompanying foots.

Foots was convicted and was sentenced to more than 29 years in prison in October 2008, and forfeited a 2005 Mercedes Benz he purchased with some of the stolen money, Jacks said.

Both Williams and Foots served time for another armored car robbery in 1988 in Dallas.

U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle will sentence Williams on August 6, 2009.