Alamogordo Man Pleads Guilty to October 2012 Robbery of Bank in Hatch, New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE—Kenneth Morral, 31, of Alamogordo, New Mexico, pleaded guilty this afternoon to a bank robbery charge and admitted robbing the First New Mexico Bank in Hatch, New Mexico on October 19, 2012. Morral entered his guilty plea without the benefit of any plea agreement.

The First New Mexico Bank was robbed in the early afternoon of October 19, 2012, by two men who approached two bank tellers and verbally demanded money. After obtaining money from the bank tellers, the men departed the bank and drove away in a grey colored vehicle. On October 21, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported to the FBI the discovery of an abandoned car that matched the description of the getaway car. The FBI found evidence in the vicinity of the vehicle linking it to the bank robbery and a check of the vehicle’s VIN led investigators to Ricky J. Garcia, 48, of Los Lunas, New Mexico. Garcia was arrested the next day after sources identified him as one of the men who perpetrated the bank robbery. Morral was identified as the other bank robber by a source on October 25, 2012.

Jacleen Lorraine Henderson, 29, also of Los Lunas, assisted Garcia and Morral in the aftermath of the bank robbery after Garcia’s vehicle broke down by arranging for them to be picked up and by using proceeds of the bank robbery to purchase a vehicle and other items. Henderson was arrested on November 1, 2012, and charged with being an accessory after the fact. Morral was arrested in Gallup, New Mexico by the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office on November 14, 2012.

Morral has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. On January 15, 2013, Garcia pleaded guilty to bank robbery. Garcia too remains detained pending his yet to be scheduled sentencing hearing. Morral and Garcia each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when they are sentenced. Henderson pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact on January 29, 2013. She is detained pending her sentencing hearing and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luis A. Martinez and E. Garreth Winstead of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office, and were investigated by the FBI and the Hatch Police Department with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office.