Killers go on to rob bank

Crossett woman slain, her car used in getaway; 2 sought

— Authorities are searching for two men who abducted and killed a Crossett woman, then used her car as the getaway vehicle in a North Crossett bank robbery Thursday morning.

The men confronted Donna Woodberry, 58, in the carport of her Crossett home on Texas Street, 10th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen said. The pair then abducted her and fled in her pewter 2003 Nissan Altima.

The kidnappers shot her about 9:07 a.m. and dumped her body on Hidden Acres Road in the North Crossett area, Deen said.

About eight minutes later, the men robbed the First National Bank of Crossett’s North Crossett branch and took a “significant amount of cash,” Deen said, declining to give an amount.

They then fled north in Woodberry’s vehicle, which was found in a parking lot about two miles from the bank, Deen said. The prosecutor suspected that the men got into another vehicle in the parking lot.

“We don’t know for sure that there was another car there, but it would make sense that they would ditch the stolen car for one that’s not hot,” Deen said.

Asked if he thought the robbery was planned, Deen said, “Sounds like it.”

Authorities with the FBI, the Arkansas State Police, the Ashley County sheriff’s office and the Crossett and Hamburg police departments were searching for the suspects Thursday night, Deen said.

One of the robbers was described as a black man with short hair and no facial hair who was last seen wearing a green shirt and denim jeans, according to a news release from state police spokesman Bill Sadler. No description in the release was given for the second robber, but other officials said only that he was black.

State police Lt. Ron Stayton said authorities did not know Thursday evening what, if any, type of vehicle the suspects got into after ditching Woodberry’s stolen car.

“We’re looking for two black males. That’s all we know right now,” said Stayton, who heads the criminal investigative division handling southeast Arkansas, including Ashley County.

An official in the Crossett Police Department declined comment, saying all inquiries should be directed to Deen.

The two men - wearing what a bank official described as gas masks - entered the bank at 1218 Arkansas 133 about 9:15 a.m., authorities said.

One man carrying a rifle held the branch manager and a customer at gunpoint on the bank floor, said India Holt, vice president for marketing at First National Bank of Crossett’s main branch in Crossett.

The second man stormed into the drive-through teller’s area, where he assaulted a teller before taking the money, Holt said.

The teller was treated and released from a hospital with a broken nose and abrasions on her face, Holt said. She declined to release the woman’s name.

“Typically you don’t have robbers assault an employee because the employees are trained to give them whatever they want,” Holt said. “Perhaps they were under the influence of something, because they were yelling and screaming.”

Holt said the man who assaulted the teller took money from the drive-through window area but did not attempt to get money from the vault, where another bank employee was hiding.

“He didn’t even access the cash drawer - he just kind of ransacked through the place,” Holt said. “I mean, the place looked like a tornado came through.”

In 2006, Grover Evans, then 18, fatally shot bank teller James Garison, 25, during a Dec. 23 robbery at a Metropolitan National Bank branch on Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to capital murder, theft and two counts of aggravated robbery.He was sentenced to life in prison for capital murder, plus concurrent 40-year sentences for two robbery charges and five years for theft.

Mike Shepard, vice president of security at Metropolitan National Bank and president of the Central Arkansas Security Council, said he couldn’t remember any other bank robberies in Arkansas tied to a death.

“It’s such a rarity,” he said. “Those are very few and far between.”

Shepard said tellers and security guards are trained before they begin working to handle bank robberies and undergo retraining yearly.

A few hours before Thursday’s robbery, the manager of the Tobacco Outlet near the bank said she had noticed a suspicious man lurking in the area.

“When I came in to work in the morning, I saw a peculiar black male walking around outside, and I had to tell the state investigators that,” Amanda Hammons said.

“It wasn’t someone we’ve seen before, and we live in a small place. Something was weird.”

State police asked that anyone with information about the men wanted in the killing and robbery contact the Troop F headquarters at (870) 226-3713, or the Ashley County sheriff’s office at (870) 853-2040.

Information for this article was contributed by Jamie Klein of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/02/2010

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