Surviving suspect in 'Bonnie and Clyde' crime team due in Birmingham court next month

The surviving suspect in the "Bonnie and Clyde" crime team accused of a multi-state crime spree is expected to be brought back to Alabama next month for arraignment on federal charges issued out of Birmingham.

Brittany Nicole Harper, 32, was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison after pleading no contest to robbery, home invasion and other charges in the Florida Panhandle. Authorities say Harper was involved in crimes that span four states.

According to a news release, Harper will be transferred to face charges in other states before she goes to prison in Florida. Federal court records in Alabama indicate Harper's arraignment will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 9 before U.S. Magistrate Judge John E. Ott.

A federal grand jury in July 2016 returned an eight-count indictment Harper, who is from Joplin, Missouri. The indictment charges Harper with one count of conspiracy to transport a stolen vehicle across state lines, two counts of transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines, three counts of carjacking and two counts of brandishing a gun during a violent crime.

Harper's boyfriend, Blake Fitzgerald, died in a hail of police gunfire on Feb. 5. The shooting followed a massive manhunt that started in Escambia County and ended in Santa Rosa County. There was a car chase, then a foot chase, and another car chase. A barrage of gunfire erupted near the intersection of Garcon Point Road and Hammock Trace in Milton just before 1:30 a.m.

Fitzgerald was pronounced dead on the scene. Harper, who lawmen said Fitzgerald used as a human shield during the gunfire, was wounded and hospitalized.

The indictment chronicles a 10-day, four-state crime spree by Harper and Fitzgerald that began in Webb City, Mo., on Jan. 26, when the couple took a 2009 Cadillac on a test drive from a dealership and never returned the vehicle. Highlights of the crime spree, as outlined in the indictment, are as follows, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office:

Before arriving in Alabama, the couple broke into a home in Missouri, where they parked the stolen Cadillac in the garage and stole a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer parked at the home. The couple's first crime in Alabama is listed as a theft of an air pump from the Walmart in Bessemer on Jan. 30 before the couple drove the Trailblazer to Tuscaloosa, where they forced a motel clerk at gunpoint into the backseat of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta he had driven to work. Harper and Fitzgerald then drove the Jetta to Hoover, where they tried, unsuccessfully, on Jan. 31, to take a Camaro from a McDonald's employee, and then released the motel clerk in Vestavia Hills.

Soon after releasing the clerk, Fitzgerald went into a home on Monte Vista Drive in Vestavia Hills through an open garage door, where he encountered a man and his young sons. Fitzgerald put a gun to the man's neck and began forcing him to the garage, but the husband and father broke free and ran for help. Fitzgerald then forced the man's wife at gunpoint into the homeowners' 2010 Ford Edge and drove away.

Harper and Fitzgerald released the Vestavia Hills woman near the Grandview Medical Center on Cahaba River Road in Birmingham, and then drove the stolen Ford Edge to Perry County, Ga.

The indictment does not name Fitzgerald. It does list other crimes in Georgia and Florida before Harper's arrest in Florida. Authorities said the other crimes listed as part of the conspiracy, but not individually charged in the indictment, include the robbery and kidnapping of a convenience store clerk in Perry, Ga., on Feb. 1, the robbery of Alvin's Island beach shop in Destin, Fla., on Feb. 3, and the robbery of a shoe store and a home invasion and carjacking, all in Pensacola, Fla., on Feb. 4.

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