FBI charges Berryville man in bank robbery

Hunter Cody Chafin, 19, of Berryville
Hunter Cody Chafin, 19, of Berryville

The FBI has filed a criminal charge against a 19-year-old Berryville man accused of robbing a Eureka Springs bank, fleeing in a taxi and then using the stolen money to buy a motorcycle from a Bentonville police officer.

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Hunter Cody Chafin told Eureka Springs police that he just needed some money to change his life, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.

Chafin had told his roommate that he planned to get a bank loan, buy the motorcycle and move to Florida, according to a Eureka Springs police report. Chafin had traveled about 4 miles south on the motorcycle before he was arrested by the police officer who sold him the bike, the report says.

Chafin was charged Tuesday with bank robbery. The federal case file was unsealed Thursday.

The Eureka Springs branch of First National Bank of North Arkansas was robbed on Oct. 14, according to the federal court filing.

The bank robber went into the bank, identified himself and asked a teller if his accounts were still open, according to a probable cause affidavit by Billy Cox, a special agent for the FBI.

The robber went outside and waited for the taxi to arrive, according to the affidavit. Then, the affidavit says, he went back into the bank and handed the teller a note that read "50's and 100's only! No trouble, I have a gun!"

He then fled in the taxi, according to the affidavit. Unaware that a robbery had taken place, the cabdriver drove Chafin 40 miles west to Bentonville and left him at a police officer's house, the affidavit says.

According to the FBI and police reports, $3,350 was taken from the bank, and Chafin paid $2,900 for the Honda motorcycle, which he had located through the website letgo.com. He also paid the cabdriver $150 for the trip to Bentonville, the reports say.

About three minutes after Chafin bought the bike, Bentonville police Cpl. Steve Vera got a telephone call saying a taxi had just dropped a bank robbery suspect off at his house, said Gene Page, a spokesman for the Police Department.

Realizing he sold his motorcycle to the suspect, Vera and another officer left in search of Chafin and arrested him as he was traveling south on Walton Boulevard.

Page said he doesn't believe Chafin knew he had arranged to buy the motorcycle from a police officer.

When police arrested Chafin, they found the robbery note in his jacket pocket, according to the FBI and police reports. They didn't find a gun, said Thomas Achord, the Eureka Springs police chief.

Bank robbery falls under Title 18, Section 2113(a) of United States Code when "force and violence," intimidation or extortion are employed by the suspect. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Chafin was moved from the Carroll County jail in Berryville to the Washington County jail in Fayetteville. He appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Setser in Fayetteville and was appointed a public defender.

Chafin requested a detention hearing, but one had not been scheduled as of late Friday. He remained in the Washington County jail on Friday in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Chafin told Eureka Springs police that he had been planning the robbery for a week or so, "researching ways not to get caught, and the penalties if he did," according to the FBI affidavit.

"Chafin did not think he would actually follow through with it," according to the court filing.

Metro on 10/22/2016

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