Dustin Michael Halvorsen, age 37, and Noelle Monique Lerma, age 23, face federal charges for their alleged role in the robbery of the Riverview Community Bank in Aumsville on February 8, 2022. According to the criminal complaint filed in this case, bank employees observed the male robber approach a teller station and hand over a note. The note threatened the teller that “you will be the first one shot” if the teller did not comply. The robber kept his right hand inside his coat pocket, and the victim teller believed the robber was holding a gun.

The robber received cash, left the bank on foot, and traveled a short distance before a witness saw the robber get into the passenger side of a black sedan. Fewer than 10 minutes after the robbery began, Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies spotted the sedan. Once they ran the license plate, they realized it belonged to a different vehicle, and they stopped the sedan. Marion County deputies and Stayton Police Officers, working with Aumsville Police, took Halvorsen and Lerma into custody.

Investigators believe Halvorsen and Lerma may be connected to other recent criminal activity in Newport and Eugene. Anyone with information about potential other criminal activity is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov. Halvorsen and Lerma made their initial appearances before a federal magistrate judge on February 10, 2022, and the judge ordered them held pending further court proceedings. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon is prosecuting this case.

A criminal complaint is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.