ROCHESTER, N.Y.—A federal jury has convicted Richard Leon Wilbern, 59, of Rochester, NY, of the August 12, 2003, armed robbery of the Xerox Federal Credit Union which resulted in the death of Raymond Batzel. The charges carry a penalty of mandatory life in prison.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas E. Gregory and Joel L. Violanti, who handled the prosecution of the case, Wilbern walked into Xerox Federal Credit Union (XFCU) located on the Xerox Corporation campus at 800 Phillips Road in Webster, NY, at approximately 9:45 a.m. Wilbern was wearing a dark blue nylon jacket with the letters ‘FBI’ written in yellow on the back of the jacket, sunglasses and a poorly fitting wig. He was also carrying a large briefcase, a green and gray-colored umbrella and had what appeared to be a United States Marshals badge hanging on a chain around his neck.
Wilbern went into the cubicle of a female employee and told her that he was there to conduct a security assessment and to ‘stage’ a robbery. The defendant subsequently removed two firearms from the briefcase, one described as a handgun, the other a sawed-off shot gun or sawed-off rifle. Wilbern also removed a bag and instructed the employee to fill the bag with money from behind the teller counter. The employee complied with the demands.
Shortly after, the defendant ordered employees and customers to lay down on the floor. While doing so, Wilbern confronted a customer Raymond Batzel who had just finished a banking transaction with the teller. After a very brief verbal altercation, the defendant shot Batzel in the neck which resulted in his death. As Wilbern shot Batzel, a second customer, Joseph Doud, entered the credit union and attempted to turn and run back outside after witnessing the shooting. The defendant shot and wounded the customer in the back as he fled. After shooting the two customers, Wilbern returned to the teller counter area and, while holding the firearm in the air, told credit union employees to fill the bag with cash. The defendant then took the money and fled the credit union leaving behind the umbrella.
In the aftermath of the robbery/homicide at the Xerox Federal Credit Union, the Monroe County Public Safety Laboratory attempted to obtain DNA samples from the green and gray umbrella which was left behind by Wilbern. Two sets of swabs were taken from various locations on the umbrella, including the ‘external wrap around closure and button’, the ‘lower latch mechanism’, the ‘metal shaft and upper latch mechanism’ and an ‘internal strap.’ One set of swabs was tested for the presence of DNA while the second set was allowed to dry, packaged and appropriately stored at the lab for future testing. Based upon the technology available at the time, insufficient amounts of DNA were located on the first set of swabs and therefore no conclusions could be drawn.
On November 15, 2011, Webster Police investigators transferred the second set of swabs from the Monroe County Public Safety Building to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in New York City. OCME had developed the expertise and facilities necessary to perform a DNA testing technique that enables testing to be performed on trace amounts of evidence. This testing technique is referred to as High Sensitivity DNA testing, also referred to as Low Template testing.
December 28, 2011, OCME issued a report advising that they were able to recover human DNA from each of submitted swabs from the umbrella, and that two of the submitted swabs contained sufficient levels of human DNA to conduct High Sensitivity PCR DNA testing and comparison. Regarding DNA taken from the ‘umbrella closure wrap around’, the Medical Examiner concluded that DNA from at least two people was located, but included one male and one female DNA profile.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory and Violanti stated that this DNA evidence helped to link Wilbern to the crime scene. U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced the conviction, stating that ‘justice has been served’ in this case.
Contact: Barbara Burns at (716) 843-5817 for more information.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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