(AP) – A 49-year-old Springfield man will spend the rest of his life in federal prison after being sentenced as a career criminal for three Springfield armed robberies in November 2008.

Mark Joseph Morris was sentenced Wednesday to 72 years and six months without parole and ordered to pay roughly $5,600 in restitution.

Morris was found guilty in March of three counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Two months before that he pleaded guilty to the three robberies related to the firearm charges.

Morris admitted robbing a Bank of America on Nov. 7, 2008, a Walgreens Drug Store on Nov. 17, 2008, and a second Bank of America on Nov. 21, 2008.

Morris claimed the gun he used was a BB gun, though the weapon w