NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

DECEMBER 20, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STEWARTSVILLE MAN CHARGED WITH

ST. JOSEPH BANK ROBBERY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Stewartsville, Mo., man was charged in federal court today with robbing a St. Joseph, Mo., bank.

Donny James Eskridge, 49, of Stewartsville, was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City.

Today’s criminal complaint alleges that Eskridge stole $1,828 from First Bank of Missouri, 602 Edmond St., St. Joseph, on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007. According to an affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Eskridge – wearing a wig and fake mustache – approached a bank employee and told her that he was there to rob the bank, opening a bag he was carrying to display what appeared to be a handgun inside the bag (it was later determined to be a BB gun). The employee led Eskridge to the teller stations, the affidavit says, where he obtained $1,828 from another employee then left the bank.

Eskridge was arrested by St. Joseph, Mo., police officers a short distance from the bank in an alley where he had parked his car.

Wood cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Michael Green. It was investigated by the St. Joseph, Mo., Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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