Preston Pope Gets 62 Years for Omaha Bank, Walgreens Heists

Preston Pope, 28, and Jeron Morris, 25, both of Omaha, Nebraska, are headed to federal prison after being sentenced for a pair of violent, daylight robberies that terrorized employees and customers across the city. Pope was handed a crushing 62 years, 3 months behind bars, followed by 5 years of supervised release. Morris received a 10-year sentence and 3 years of supervision. Both men were ordered to pay $11,555.92 in restitution for crimes committed in a single, blood-chilling day.

The first heist struck just after midnight on August 11, 2015, at the Walgreens on 3001 Dodge Street. Dressed in masks and gloves, Morris and Pope barged in, demanded cash from both an employee and a customer, and fled with $556.14 from the register and $12 from a shaken civilian. Witnesses saw them bolt from the store and speed off in an older-model white sedan—later confirmed stolen—vanishing into the night like ghosts.

But they weren’t done. Just after 5:43 p.m. that same day, the duo stormed the U.S. Bank inside the No Frills grocery store at 4240 South 50th Street. Again masked and gloved, they each brandished handguns, waved them in the faces of two tellers, and walked out with $9,984. This time, a sharp-eyed witness snapped the license plate of their getaway car—a break that would prove fatal to their freedom.

Police located the abandoned white sedan less than a mile from the bank. Inside, they found Morris’s DNA and a .40 caliber ammunition magazine. Days later, on August 14, officers pulled over a van for a traffic violation. The driver—Preston Pope—fled on foot after abandoning the vehicle. Cops caught him, then retraced the chase and found a .40 caliber handgun tossed beside the road. DNA testing tied Pope to the weapon, and ballistics confirmed the magazine matched the one found in the stolen sedan.

A search warrant at Pope’s residence revealed an empty box for a .40 handgun, complete with two additional magazines. The serial number matched the discarded firearm. The case tightened further when investigators learned Pope had accompanied a relative to a car dealership on August 13, where $2,300 in cash—including a $10 bill traced directly to the U.S. Bank robbery—was used to purchase a vehicle.

Morris pleaded guilty to brandishing a firearm during the Walgreens robbery and robbing U.S. Bank. Pope went to trial and was convicted on all counts: being a felon in possession of a firearm, robbing Walgreens, robbing U.S. Bank, and brandishing a firearm at both locations. With a long criminal history, he was labeled a career offender, sealing his fate. The investigation was a joint operation by the Omaha Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.