South Dakota Man Sentenced for Robbing Arden Hills and Bloomington Banks

MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, a 45-year-old South Dakota man was sentenced for robbing two Twin Cities banks during the first week of 2012 and one North Dakota bank in December 2011. United States District Judge David S. Doty sentenced William Roy St. John, of Sisseton, South Dakota, to 188 months in prison on three counts of bank robbery. On April 3, 2012, St. John was indicted in connection with the Minnesota robberies, and on May 2, 2012, he was indicted for the North Dakota robbery. On December 5, 2012, St. John pleaded guilty to all three robberies.

In his plea agreement, St. John admitted that on January 2, 2012, he stole approximately $3,810 from the U.S. Bank on Lyndale Avenue South in Bloomington; on January 4, 2012, he stole approximately $5,520 from the Wells Fargo Bank on County Road E in Arden Hills; and on December 13, 2011, he stole approximately $2,107 from the Bank of the West in Fargo, North Dakota.

Surveillance images from the two Minnesota banks indicated that the suspect was the same man. As part of a law enforcement investigation into those crimes, authorities executed a state search warrant at a Minneapolis apartment on January 5, 2012. Among other things, they recovered clothing similar to that worn by the robber.

On January 7, 2012, authorities arrested St. John in Bloomington. In addition to being charged federally with bank robbery, St. John was charged in Hennepin County District Court with attempted home invasion as well as attempted carjacking, kidnapping, and auto theft, all of which were unrelated to the bank robberies. St. John has since been convicted of those state charges, and he remains in state custody.

This federal bank robbery case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bloomington Police Department, and the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dunne.