United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

DEFENDANT IN STAGED BANK ROBBERY IN RED OAK, TEXAS,
PLEADS GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT

DALLAS — Just days before his trial was to begin in federal court, the last defendant from a bank robbery that occurred in Red Oak, Texas, in June 2007, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Roderick Bernard Hunter, and three other individuals, robbed the Wachovia Bank located at 557 E. Ovilla Road, in Red Oak, on June 28, 2007.

Hunter, 32, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and bank robbery. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Co-defendants Tareesa Johnson, 23, D’Andre Jones, 21, and Jesse Lee Bell, 25, each pled guilty to bank robbery, which carries a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All defendants, with the exception of Johnson, are in custody. Johnson is on home confinement.

According to documents filed in the case, beginning in June 2007, Johnson, a teller at the Wachovia Bank on Ovilla Road in Red Oak, and her boyfriend, Jesse Lee Bell, along with D’Andre Jones and Roderick Bernard Hunter, conspired to rob the bank where Johnson was employed. The robbery was to happen on a date and time when Johnson knew that she would have access to large sums of cash and was to be committed by someone that Johnson didn’t know. She had previously discussed with Bell the protocol she was to follow in case of a robbery and the four defendants had agreed that they would split the robbery proceeds.

Hunter admits that at Bell’s request, he solicited D’Andre Jones to enter the bank and pass the bank robbery demand note to Johnson. On the evening of June 27, 2007, Hunter, Bell and Jones met and discussed the details of the staged robbery that was to take place the following afternoon. On the afternoon of June 28, 2007, Hunter, and Jones drove to a location near the bank in a maroon 2004 Chevrolet Impala that belonged to Hunter’s mother. When they arrived at the location, Hunter removed the license plates from the car and then got into a separate vehicle that Bell drove and waited outside the Wachovia Bank until Jones had completed the staged robbery. In the meantime, Jones drove the maroon Impala to the bank, parked on the west side of the building and left the keys in the ignition with the vehicle running.

Jones entered the bank and passed the demand note, which Hunter had written, to teller Tareesa Johnson. Johnson gave him cash and Jones departed the bank, entered the Impala getaway vehicle, and was arrested by law enforcement agents following a short chase. Johnson was arrested the same day; Bell was arrested in July and Hunter was arrested in August.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the excellent investigative efforts of the FBI and the Garland and Red Oak, Texas, Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert is prosecuting the case.

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