Las Vegas Man Sentenced to Over 10 Years In Prison For Bank Robbery After Escaping From Prison

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Las Vegas man who robbed a bank in the Southern Highlands area after escaping from a Bureau of Prisons facility in Arizona was sentenced today to 125 months in prison and three years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson for the District of Nevada.

Richard Lee Canterbury, 68, was convicted by a jury in February of one count of bank robbery. United States District Judge Kent J. Dawson presided over the two-day trial and sentencing hearing.

According to court documents, on March 16, 2016, Canterbury entered a Nevada State Bank on Southern Highlands Parkway in Las Vegas wearing a gray “fisherman” style hat, dark glasses, and a blue and white striped long sleeve shirt under a gray zip up vest, carrying a blue zip top bank bag. He approached a teller and showed a handwritten note which stated: “This Is A Robbery No Tricks Loose Bills Only Cooperate No One Gets Hurt Otherwise Everyone Dies.” The teller placed approximately $1,901 and a GPS tracking device into the bag. Canterbury left the bank with the bag containing the bank money and the tracking device.

Shortly after the robbery, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers, using information from the GPS tracker and the suspect’s description provided by the bank teller, located and stopped Canterbury’s vehicle. Officers found the stolen bank cash, the bank bag, the note, and the GPS tracking device inside his vehicle. He was still wearing the clothes that he wore during the robbery. He was arrested and taken into custody.

Canterbury was serving a 46 month federal sentence for Felon in Possession of Firearms when he escaped from a Bureau of Prisons facility in Florence, Arizona, on January 27, 2016.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Cartier-Giroux and Jared L. Grimmer prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made turning the tide of rising violent crime in America a top priority. In October 2017, as part of a series of actions to address this crime trend, Attorney General Sessions announced the reinvigoration of PSN. For more information about PSN, visit www.justice.gov/usao-nv.

###