Dashawn Anthony Starnes, Armed Bank Robbery, Ohio 2015

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Columbus Man Sentenced for Armed Bank Robberies

A Columbus man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in two armed bank robberies in Clark and Fairfield counties, Ohio.

Dashawn Anthony Starnes, 27, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 204 months in prison for four charges related to armed bank robbery. According to the statement of facts, Starnes acted as the getaway driver and/or participated in two armed robberies in the summer of 2015.

On June 30, 2015, Starnes drove Lawrence W. Bell, Jr., 32, of Columbus, to the Fifth Third Bank on Tuttle Road in Springfield, Ohio for the purpose of committing a robbery. On August 18, 2015, Starnes and Bell robbed the Peoples Bank on North Main Street in Baltimore, Ohio. Starnes brandished a pistol at tellers while committing the bank robbery.

Starnes pleaded guilty in March to two counts of bank robbery and two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Agents arrested Starnes on October 4, 2017. He has been in custody since his arrest.

Bell also robbed the First Service Credit Union on East Main Street in Reynoldsburg on June 17, 2015 and brandished a pistol at tellers. He was sentenced in May and also received a term of imprisonment of 17 years.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin C. Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by law enforcement, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Prichard, who is representing the United States in this case.

Starnes’ sentence was handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. The investigation was led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Columbus Police Department, the Springfield Police Department, and the Baltimore Police Department.