Man Held, Accused of Bank Robbery Spree

Following a four-day stakeout, a 10-person team of FBI agents and plainclothes police officers on Wednesday nabbed a Ventura man suspected of the year’s biggest one-man bank robbery spree.

Robert Charles Poynter, 31, was arrested on suspicion of bank robbery outside the Ventura office of Santa Barbara Savings and Loan, 3620 Telegraph Road, after a morning pursuit involving more than a dozen marked and unmarked police cars. Also arrested was Julian Delgado, 29, of El Rio, who is suspected of being Poynter’s driver.

“There was a crowd at the end,” Ventura Police Sgt. Roger Nustad said. “There was just a pileup of police cars at the culmination of the arrest.”

A few dozen people gathered to watch, he added, while officers scattered to interview bank tellers and other witnesses.

The FBI suspects Poynter in eight area bank robberies since July and two attempted robberies. The robber scrawled notes on Manila envelopes demanding money and threatening that he had a gun, said Gary Auer, special agent in the FBI’s Ventura bureau.

If convicted, Poynter and Delgado could face up to 20 years in prison and $5,000 fines for each robbery, Auer said.

Police detectives and FBI agents teamed up to watch Poynter’s home in the 300 block of Anacapa Street beginning Saturday about 6:30 a.m. For four days they followed him to and from friends’ houses and on shopping errands. On Wednesday, Poynter and Delgado stopped at 1st Nationwide Bank, 1190 S. Victoria Ave., about 11 a.m. but left without incident, Nustad said.

The men then drove to Santa Barbara Savings and Loan followed by seven unmarked police cars, which parked on side streets and in the bank parking lot, Nustad said.

Poynter “came out of the bank on a dead run with some object in his hands. It turned out to be a folder with some money,” Nustad said, adding that it held about $800. Delgado was in the car, he said.

Authorities believe Santa Barbara Savings and Loan is the eighth bank robbed by Poynter.

He is suspected in robberies Aug. 13 at World Savings and Loan Assn., 11 E. Ponderosa Drive, Camarillo; Aug. 10 at Santa Barbara Savings and Loan, 425 Arneil Road, Camarillo; Aug. 9 at the Bank of A. Levy, 1830 Victoria Ave., Oxnard; Aug. 1 at the World Savings & Loan Assn. at 2704 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura; July 28 at 1st Nationwide Bank, 1055 S. Oxnard Blvd., Oxnard; and July 26 at Security Pacific National Bank, 9493 Telephone Road, Ventura.

They also suspect him of a robbery in northern Santa Barbara County on Aug. 14 and two robbery attempts in July and August in Camarillo and Oxnard.

The FBI declined to say how much money Poynter is suspected of taking during the robberies this summer.

On Aug. 13 a packet of purple dye exploded on the strawberry-blond robber.

At the bank Wednesday, the teller gave the robber a dye packet, “and he threw it back at her,” Nustad said.