UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA ALEXANDRIA    NEWPORT NEWS    NORFOLK    RICHMOND CHUCK ROSENBERG, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

Colonial Heights Wachovia Bank Robbers Sentenced

(Richmond, Virginia) - Leslie Steven Guthrie, Jr., age 37, of Scottsville, Virginia; and Gregory Allen Lebert, age 34, of Ona, Florida, were sentenced today for Bank Robbery. Chief United States District Judge James R. Spencer sentenced each to terms of 210 months of imprisonment and ordered each to make restitution to Wachovia Bank in the amount of $9,100.25. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jennifer Smith Love, Special Agent-In-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Colonel Jeffrey W. Faries, Colonial Heights Police Department announced the sentencings.

The defendants have admitted that on August 23, 2007, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Gregory Allen Lebert entered the Colonial Square Branch of Wachovia Bank, located at 3107-16 Boulevard in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Lebert approached a teller and advised that he was there to cash a check. Lebert told the teller that he was looking for his identification, but instead produced a handwritten note on what appeared to be a torn brown paper grocery bag. The note read, “This is a bank robbery, give me all of your $50s and $100s, no dye packs.” The teller complied with the handwritten instructions and gave Lebert all of the money in the cash drawer, including two $50 “bait” bills with paperclips on them. Bait bills are bills whose serial number is recorded by the bank. Lebert then turned his attention to the neighboring teller and demanded money from that teller’s cash drawer as well. Lebert told the teller “Give me your money too, don’t play with me.” That teller also complied.

Lebert then fled the bank, and met up with Guthrie who was operating a 1960 Ford pickup truck. The two men were stopped in the vicinity of the bank for reckless driving. Upon identifying the occupants of the vehicle as Lebert and Guthrie, officers determined that they were wanted for a bank robbery that had been committed in Buckingham County, Virginia. Lebert was also identified as the person who had entered the bank and committed the robbery. The defendants were arrested and a search of the vehicle resulted in the recovery of most of the money stolen from the bank, as well as the visor cap, shirt and sunglasses that Lebert had worn into the bank during the robbery, and that had been hidden under a tarp covering the car’s seat.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Richmond Division; and Colonel Jeffrey W. Faries, Colonial Heights Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Angela Mastandrea-Miller.