A 45-year-old man serving time in prison for ambushing two couples in a Bloomington house has been sentenced in federal court in Minneapolis for robbing three banks in the days leading up to the 2012 home invasion.

William R. St. John, 45, a South Dakota resident with a long criminal record, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 ⅔ years in prison for bank robberies in December 2011 and January 2012. He also must make restitution of more than $11,000.

St. John is currently in state prison in Oak Park Heights on a conviction for attempted home invasion, carjacking, kidnapping and auto theft in a string of events that led up to the Bloomington incident. He is not scheduled for release before July 2025.

The federal sentence handed down this week will be served concurrently, meaning an additional three-plus years before St. John can go free. Prosecutors argued for consecutive sentences, which would have kept him locked up until 2041.

St. John's arrest came during the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2012, after he barged into a home in the 8200 block of Johnson Circle in Bloomington, where two young couples were watching television.

St. John, described by police as being on a crack binge, was brandishing a screwdriver, claimed he had a gun and ordered them onto the floor. He then demanded a car and one hostage from among the four.

One of the men eventually went with St. John to the garage, while the others stayed inside and called police. When St. John turned for a moment in the garage, the young man tackled him, and as they struggled, one of the others knocked St. John out with an iron.

Police arrived shortly and made the arrest. Earlier in the day, under pursuit by federal marshals and police, St. John allegedly carjacked a Cadillac and broke into three Bloomington homes near France Avenue S.

The series of events in the Twin Cities happened just weeks after St. John was released from federal prison in Missouri, where he had been held on convictions for theft, illegal weapons possession and auto theft.

The trio of bank robberies began 18 days later, when St. John held up a Bank of the West in Fargo, getting away with $2,107, according to court records.

Next came his robbery of a U.S. Bank branch in Bloomington of $3,810, on Jan. 2, 2012, and the holdup of a Wells Fargo Bank on West County Road E. in Arden Hills on Jan. 4.

When he was in his 20s, court records show, St. John was convicted of property crimes in Minneapolis, where he then lived.

Star Tribune staff writer Joy Powell contributed to this report. Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482