Missouri Resident Sentenced to 77 Months in Prison for Bank Robbery

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA—On January 28, 2014, Nathan Wayne Smith, a 48-year-old resident of Lexington, Missouri, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge James Gritzner to 77 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for bank robbery, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt.

On October 18, 2013, after a three day trial, the jury found Smith guilty of robbing the Great Western Bank of Hamburg, Iowa. The evidence produced at trial showed that on June 11, 2012, Smith traveled from his home in Lexington, Missouri to Hamburg, Iowa, arriving at the Great Western Bank around 9:30 a.m. Smith approached a teller in the bank, placed a plastic bag on the counter in front of her, and told her to fill the bag with money. After obtaining the money from the teller, Smith ran from the bank.

Smith was identified as the party responsible when Buckner, Missouri police officers recalled stopping a vehicle on the afternoon of June 11, 2012, that matched the description of the vehicle disseminated after-the-fact by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Buckner, Missouri, is located approximately 150 miles away from Hamburg, Iowa.

The investigation was conducted by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office; the Buckner Missouri Police Department; the Lexington, Missouri Police Department; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.