VENTURA, PORT HUENEME : Man Pleads Guilty to Bank Robberies

A Ventura man has been convicted in Los Angeles on federal charges stemming from the robberies of two Ventura County banks on consecutive days in May, the FBI announced Thursday.

Eddie Speer, 31, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he held up the Bank of A. Levy branch on Harbor Boulevard in Ventura on May 19, and the Bank of America branch on West Channel Islands Boulevard in Port Hueneme the next day.

Speer was captured after fleeing the Bank of America. He was spotted by Port Hueneme police officers who had staked out the bank because of a rash of bank robberies.

Speer led officers on a car chase to the vicinity of Victoria Avenue and Gonzales Road in Oxnard, where he was later found hiding in a lemon tree.

After Speer agreed to plead guilty to two counts of bank robbery, federal prosecutors dropped a third count that charged him with the May 12 robbery of Household Bank in Port Hueneme, said Gary Auer, head of the FBI’s Ventura office. He is scheduled to return to U. S. District Court in Los Angeles on Sept. 28 for sentencing.

In an unrelated matter, a gunman held up Southern California Savings in Ventura Thursday, escaping with an undisclosed amount of money.

Investigators believe the robber is the same man who has held up five other financial institutions in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, Auer said.

The robbery occurred shortly after 9 a.m. when a man entered the thrift on Seaward Avenue, brandished a handgun and demanded money. The robber fled on foot, said Ventura Police Sgt. Gary McCaskill. The robbery was the 67th this year of a Ventura County financial institution, Auer said.