VENTURA : Bank Robber Gets 9-Year Prison Term
A Ventura man has been sentenced to more than nine years in federal prison after pleading guilty to robbing two Ventura County banks, the FBI announced Wednesday.
Eddie Speer, 32, was handed a sentence of nine years and five months for two counts of bank robbery Monday in Los Angeles by Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. of U.S. District Court.
Speer pleaded guilty in July to the May 19 robbery of the Bank of A. Levy branch on Harbor Boulevard in Ventura and the May 20 robbery of the Bank of America branch on West Channel Islands Boulevard in Port Hueneme.
After the pleas, federal prosecutors dropped a third charge against Speer for a May 12 robbery of Household Bank on North Ventura Road in Port Hueneme.
Speer was captured after the Bank of America robbery when a Port Hueneme police officer on a stakeout observed him enter and then depart the bank at the time of the robbery, said Charlie Parsons of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
Police pursued Speer’s car to a citrus orchard near Victoria Avenue and Gonzales Road in Oxnard, where they found him hiding in a lemon tree.
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