Double Hat Bandit Pleads Guilty to 18 Bank Robberies

SALT LAKE CITY – Shayne Carson, a 54-year-old man from Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the ‘Double Hat Bandit’, has pleaded guilty to 18 bank robberies committed in Utah and six other states between Oct. 15, 2016, and Sept. 16, 2017.

The majority of the robberies took place at banks inside grocery stores and involved a man wearing two hats. Carson admitted to a Dec. 19, 2016, robbery of US Bank located at 4065 South Redwood Road in West Valley City; two Dec. 27, 2016, robberies of US Banks in West Jordan – one at 4080 West 9000 South and one at 7061 South Redwood Road.

He returned to Utah to rob a US Bank at 922 East 2100 South in Salt Lake City on June 21, 2017. The string of robberies charged in the Utah case started with an Oct. 15, 2016, bank robbery in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and ended with a credit union robbery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sept 16, 2017.

Carson received between $834 and $8,377 in each of the robberies. In the majority of the robberies, Carson admitted he told the teller he had a gun and, in some cases, he admitted he brandished what appeared to be a handgun during the robbery. Law enforcement authorities now believe the handgun was not a real firearm.

The plea agreement includes a stipulated sentence of at least 144 months but not more than 180 months. The stipulated sentencing range is subject to the approval of the court. The amount of restitution Carson will be ordered to pay will be determined at the sentencing hearing in August.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City is prosecuting the case. According to prosecutors, FBI special agents did excellent work in solving a difficult case with assistance from a FBI analyst in New Mexico. Carson was arrested in Indiana in September 2017. Local and state law enforcement agencies in many states also assisted with the investigation.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 15, 2018, in U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish’s courtroom in Salt Lake City.