Mt. Pleasant man convicted of aiding robbery of Packwood bank in 2018

FAIRFIELD – A Mt. Pleasant man has been found guilty of aiding and abetting a 2018 bank robbery in Packwood.

A Jefferson County Jury handed down its guilty verdict on Monday, Oct. 28, against Jordan Garrett McKim-Crawford at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield. McKim-Crawford was found guilty of aiding and abetting robbery in the first degree, and commission of specified unlawful activity influenced enterprises, ongoing criminal conduct.

Evidence was presented to the jury that McKim-Crawford assisted in the planning and coordination of the June 1, 2018 robbery of the Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Packwood, in Jefferson County. The ongoing criminal conduct charge related to McKim-Crawford's role in using proceeds and illicit funds gained through unlawful activities, specifically, a theft from an ATM in Brighton on May 29, 2018, and the Packwood bank robbery on June 1, 2018, in order to finance an interstate drug trafficking scheme.

According to a news release from Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, testimony and evidence were presented at the trial through deputies and investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and a special agent from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation which included technical evidence derived from analyzing cellular networks and phones seized during the investigation. Testimony was also heard from Ethan Spray, a co-defendant who testified to his role entering into the Packwood bank on June 1, 2018, to carry out the robbery.

McKim-Crawford was convicted of robbing this same bank in Packwood in 2007, for which he served an indeterminate 10-year sentence. He will be held in custody of the Jefferson County Jail pending sentencing, scheduled for Feb. 3, 2020. Each count carries a maximum term of incarceration of 25 years, and could be run concurrent to each other, for a maximum possible sentence of 50 years. The minimum period of incarceration for Count I (aiding a robbery) is 17.5 years.

Moulding told The Union that Spray had already entered into a plea agreement with the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, Keokuk County Attorney's Office and Iowa Attorney General's Office in exchange for testifying against McKim-Crawford and Ross Edward Thornton. Thornton has also been charged with aiding and abetting the robbery of the Packwood bank, though he will not go to trial until Jan. 14, 2020.

In addition to being charged with robbing the bank in Packwood in 2018, Spray was charged with robbing the South Ottumwa Savings Bank in Hedrick later that same summer on Aug. 6, 2018.

Moulding said law enforcement officers investigating the Hedrick bank robbery analyzed certain items of clothing and found a positive DNA match to Spray, connecting him to the crime. Moulding said he recognized that Spray had the most responsibility for the Packwood bank robbery, that he was the one who held the gun and conducted the robbery.

'However, he was the only one captured using DNA evidence,” Moulding said. 'Until we had the cooperation of Mr. Spray, prosecuting the other two people [McKim-Crawford and Thornton] was impossible. I made the decision that justice would be better served if they were all put behind bars.”

Spray was charged with a Class B felony of robbery in the first degree, but he agreed to plead down to a Class C felony, meaning he will receive a 10-year prison term.

During the trial, the jury was shown video of three masked individuals breaking into an ATM in the Brighton Federation Bank on May 29, 2018. Security camera footage showed one subject used an acetylene blow torch to cut open the ATM. Another subject assisted the first while a third kept watch outside the bank.

Spray admitted on the witness stand that he was one of the three men, and said that McKim-Crawford was the man cutting open the ATM with the blow torch.

Moulding said that further evidence presented at trial showed that McKim-Crawford used money obtained in the ATM theft and in the Packwood bank robbery to purchase 'a substantial amount of marijuana” in Oregon and later transported to Iowa.