ROCKFORD – Unemployed and addicted to heroin, Timothy Gallagher was driven to desperate measures.

About 10 a.m. on Oct. 6, he walked into Citizens First State Bank in Ohio and told a teller: “Give me all your money. I’m not kidding.”

He made off with about $7,900. Less than a week later, Gallagher was locked up, charged with federal bank robbery.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge James Shadid, Gallagher said that he never “meant anyone any physical harm” and that his judgment that day was clouded by heroin.

“I realize that I have caused emotional harm to several, the bank teller and those that care for me. ... I cannot put into words how ashamed I am that I have caused others pain,” Gallagher wrote.

Thursday, Shadid sentenced the 36-year-old to 4 years and 4 months in federal prison. He also must pay the money back, all $7,900.

On Oct. 11, Whiteside County sheriff’s deputies received a tip that Gallagher’s family members “strongly believed” that he robbed the bank and that he may be at a home in Amboy that was rented by Tina L. Cartuccio.

Police went to the home around 3:30 a.m. Oct. 12 and spoke with one of the occupants, Brian M. Freeze, who said Gallagher had told him he had robbed the bank, and also gave Freeze some of the money.

A search of the home turned up a gun matching the description of the one used in the robbery, a black sweatshirt like the one the robber wore, cocaine, and hypodermic needles.

Cartuccio told investigators that Gallagher had asked her to drive him to a cornfield just outside Ohio at 9:30 a.m. the day of the robbery. She picked him up 30 minutes later and they returned home, where Gallagher began counting a “large wad” of money. Asked where he got it, Gallagher “said he robbed a bank,” Cartuccio said.

After the search, police arrested Freeze, 31; Cartuccio, 35; and Cartuccio’s sister, Amy L. Rossetti, 32, and Rossetti’s boyfriend, John A. Sailliez, 34, both of Stickney.

Cartuccio, Rossetti, and Sailliez were charged with drug possession. Freeze was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Marshall County. Rossetti and Sailiez pleaded guilty in October to heroin possession and got 2 years’ probation.

Cartuccio was sentenced in March to 4 years in prison.