Volusia Bank Robber with Fake Bomb Pleads Guilty in Federal Court

ORLANDO—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Scott Edward Nelson (46, Vermont) today pleaded guilty to bank robbery with a dangerous weapon. Nelson faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison.

According to the facts presented at the plea hearing, on December 7, 2010, Nelson entered a branch of Wachovia Bank at 1302 West International Speedway Boulevard, Daytona Beach, Florida. He handed a bank employee a five-page, handwritten demand note in which he repeatedly emphasized that everyone would die unless he received all of the “paper money” in the bank. Nelson further claimed to have with him a bomb, a .45 caliber handgun, a taser, and pepper spray. The bomb, he wrote, would “light everything in this bank on fire.”

After receiving a large amount in federally insured funds, Nelson fled the bank on foot, leaving behind a device resembling a homemade bomb. He was captured in the bank’s parking lot by officers from the Daytona Beach Police Department. Officers later determined that the bomb inside that bank was a hoax device. Nevertheless, the threat of the bomb already had resulted in extensive lock-downs and evacuations of the surrounding area, including a local high school and a hospital.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the City of Daytona Beach Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Bodnar, Jr.