Columbus Man Indicted for Robbing Eight Banks
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 20, 2011 |
COLUMBUS, OH—A federal grand jury here has indicted James Henry Evans III, 32, of Columbus, accusing him of robbing eight banks in Franklin, Madison, Montgomery and Delaware counties between October 2010 and January 2011.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig; Whitehall Police Chief Richard Zitzke; Springfield Police Chief Stephen P. Moody; Oakwood Police Chief Mark Figert; Miami Township Police Chief Alex Bebris; London Police Chief David Wiseman; and Delaware County Sheriff Walter Davis announced the indictment returned today.
The indictment alleges that Evans robbed the Security National Bank in Springfield on October 13, 2010; a Key Bank on East Dublin-Granville Road in Columbus on October 26, 2010; a Huntington Bank on East Dublin-Granville Road in Columbus on November 30, 2010; a Huntington Bank in London on December 30, 2010; LCNB in Oakwood and a Key Bank on Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Dayton on January 3, 2011; First Merit Bank in Powell on January 10, 2011; and a PNC Bank in Whitehall on January 11.
Columbus police officers arrested Evans after the Whitehall robbery. He has been in custody since his arrest.
The indictment includes six counts of unarmed bank robbery, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The indictment charges Evans with two counts of armed bank robbery in connection with the Lewis Center and Whitehall robberies. Each of those crimes is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. The indictment also charges Evans with one count of brandishing a weapon during the Lewis Center robbery. That crime carries a mandatory sentence of seven years in prison consecutive to any time served for the robberies.
Stewart commended the cooperative investigation of this case by FBI agents and the police departments named above, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Solove, who is prosecuting the case.
An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.