Trial delayed for man charged in bank robberies

A local man charged with robbing a pair of banks was supposed to stand trial in January, but his trial has been delayed to May.

Ethan Nelson David Spray, 28, of Ottumwa, has been charged with robbing both the Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Packwood and the South Ottumwa Savings Bank in Hedrick over the summer. According to information obtained via Iowa Courts online, his trial for the alleged robbery of the Hedrick bank has been delayed to May 7. It had been scheduled for Jan. 15.

His trial for the alleged robbery of the bank in Packwood is scheduled for Feb. 12.

Packwood bank

The Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Packwood was reported robbed on the afternoon of June 1. According to the county's criminal complaint, the suspect was a male with a thin build and over 6 feet tall. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black mask and displaying a black handgun. According to an eyewitness, the suspect took money from the bank and then fled in a red, Buick-style car.

A car similar in description was identified by another witness 2 miles west of Packwood just after the reported robbery. That witness observed two Caucasian males get out of the car, neither subject wearing a shirt, and each holding a white trash bag. Those subjects put the bags in a dark Dodge Ram truck that was parked there. One subject got into it while the other subject got back into the red car.

According to the complaint, one subject was described as having a tall, thin build, while the other subject was under 6 feet tall with a stocky build. The witness said both vehicles left the area northbound.

Law enforcement officers responding to the robbery call found clothing and a plastic mask burning along the roadside a few miles west of where the witness had last seen the car and Dodge Ram truck.

A red Buick-style car was seen on video surveillance footage and by a witness the evening before the robbery, driving around Packwood with at least two subjects inside.

Spray owns a 1999 Buick Regal sedan, which matches the description of the vehicle used by the suspect in this robbery and the robbery of the South Ottumwa Savings Bank in Hedrick two months later. Spray's red Buick also matched the description of a car recorded on video as being the suspect car in an ATM theft in Brighton on the morning of May 30.

In that incident, footage from the security camera shows three people enter the vestibule of the Brighton Federation Bank. One subject uses an acetylene torch to cut open the ATM. Another subject assists the first with the torch, while the third keeps watch outside the bank.

Officers later learned that an associate of Spray's owned a maroon Dodge Ram truck, and that this associate had been convicted of robbing the Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Packwood in 2007.

Hedrick bank

The South Ottumwa Savings Bank in Hedrick was robbed on the afternoon of Aug. 6, 2018. According to an arrest warrant written by Keokuk County Sheriff's deputy Adam Pence, the suspect was described as wearing a dark grey hooded sweatshirt and a black face mask and armed with a pistol.

After exiting the bank, the suspect was seen entering a vehicle, described by an eyewitness as a red Cadillac or Buick sedan. Later, a resident reported that a bag of clothes had been found burning near a rural road in the 16000 block of 110th Avenue in Wapello County. The bag was recovered, and the contents had not been fully destroyed by fire.

The clothing contained in the bag matched the description of the clothes worn by the suspect during the robbery of the Hedrick Savings Bank, including a dark grey hooded sweatshirt and black face mask. The clothing and bag were sent to the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation's crime lab for DNA analysis.

On Aug. 16, officers executed several search warrants on several people believed to be involved in the robbery, including Spray. During the execution of those warrants, officers found evidence connecting Spray to the Aug. 6 robbery. On Sept. 25, an analysis of the DNA recovered from the face mask matched Spray's DNA profile, and a sample of DNA from the bag also matched him.

Armed with that information, officers took Spray into custody and charged him with first degree robbery.

The prosecution of this case has been turned over to the Iowa Attorney General's office. Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown said today that Spray is the only person charged in relation to this case thus far.