Third Man Charged in String of North Alabama Bank Robberies Pleads Guilty

BIRMINGHAM—A Huntsville man pleaded guilty today to three 2010 bank robberies in North Alabama, including one in which more than $93,000 was stolen, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley.

Tavares Antwan Oliver, 35, entered his pleas before U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre to two counts of armed bank robbery, two counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and one count of bank robbery. Oliver admitted to robbing CB&S Bank on University Drive in Huntsville on September 29, 2010; Bancorp South on Hughes Road in Madison on October 25, 2010; and to brandishing a firearm during both of those robberies. He also admitted to robbing Peoples Bank on Beltline Road in Decatur on December 8, 2010.

Oliver faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 32 years for brandishing a firearm during the bank robberies. This sentence is in addition to any sentence he will receive for the bank robberies themselves. His sentencing is scheduled August 29 in Huntsville.

Two other men have been convicted and sentenced in connection to the 2010 North Alabama bank robberies.

In March, Judge Bowdre sentenced another Huntsville man, Ronald Lewis Henderson, 26, to six years and three months in prison for the armed robberies at CB&S Bank and Peoples Bank. Henderson pleaded guilty to the charges in December. In Henderson’s plea agreement with the government, he admitted he and Oliver entered the CB&S bank wearing disguises and took $93,000 at gunpoint from the bank. Henderson also admitted entering the Peoples Bank with Oliver and demanding a teller put money in a plastic bag. Decatur Police saw the men leaving the bank and both were arrested after fleeing police.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn in December sentenced Anthony Shawn Clark, Jr., 23, of Madison, to four years and 10 months in prison for the 2010 robbery of Bancorp South in Madison. Clark pleaded guilty to the charge in May 2011. In his plea agreement, Clark admitted that he and Oliver entered the bank wearing disguises and that Oliver brandished a gun and Clark ordered a teller to put money in a backpack Clark was carrying. The men saw Madison Police approaching the bank and fled. Both were arrested shortly thereafter.

The FBI, along with Decatur, Madison, and Huntsville Police Departments, investigated the bank robberies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Stuart Burrell prosecuted the cases.