Richard Lee Canterbury, Bank Robbery, Nevada

Richard Lee Canterbury, a 68-year-old Las Vegas man already on the run for escaping federal custody, was found guilty yesterday of robbing a Nevada State Bank branch in a brazen daylight heist. The conviction comes after a two-day trial in U.S. District Court, where a jury delivered a swift verdict on the single count of bank robbery.

On March 16, 2016, Canterbury walked into the bank on Southern Highlands Parkway dressed in a gray “fisherman” style hat, dark glasses, and a blue and white striped long sleeve shirt under a gray zip-up vest. Carrying a blue zip-top bank bag, he approached a teller and handed over a handwritten note: “This Is A Robbery No Tricks Loose Bills Only Cooperate No One Gets Hurt Otherwise Everyone Dies.” The teller complied, handing over $1,901 and a GPS tracking device concealed in the cash.

Within hours, the GPS signal and the teller’s description led Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers to intercept Canterbury’s vehicle. Inside, they recovered the stolen money, the blue bank bag, the threatening note, and the tracker. Canterbury was still wearing the same clothes used during the robbery. He was arrested without incident.

At the time of the robbery, Canterbury was a fugitive. He had escaped from a Bureau of Prisons facility on January 27, 2016, while serving a 46-month federal sentence for Felon in Possession of Firearms. His freedom didn’t last long — the bank job exposed him, setting off a manhunt that ended in his capture just hours later.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Cartier-Giroux and Jared L. Grimmer and investigated by the FBI. U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson presided over the trial. Canterbury now faces the statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for May 30, 2018.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a federal initiative reinvigorated in October 2017 under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to combat rising violent crime. The program unites local, state, and federal law enforcement to target offenders who threaten community safety. For more on PSN, visit www.justice.gov/usao-nv.