NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
John L. Brownlee United States Attorney Jo Brooks Media Contact |
BB&T Building 310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906 Roanoke, Virginia 24011 (540) 857-2250 FAX (540) 857-2180 |
January 4, 2008
GRAYSON COUNTY BANK ROBBERS SENTENCED
United States Attorney John L. Brownlee announced today that STEVEN VANCE BANNISTER, age 18, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, and NICHOLAS EMORY STALLARD, age 36, of Galax, Virginia, were sentenced in the United States District Court in Abingdon, Virginia, for bank robbery. STALLARD received a sentence of 151 months in the penitentiary and BANNISTER was sentenced to 33 months in the penitentiary. Both defendants were also ordered to pay $8,683.00 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release after their release from prison.
According to evidence presented at an earlier hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Zachary Lee, on June 6, 2007, BANNISTER entered the Grayson National Bank in Troutdale, Virginia wearing a disguise that he and STALLARD had previously purchased and presented a teller with a note demanding money. BANNISTER received $13,802.00 from the teller and then left the bank. BANNISTER was picked up by STALLARD who was driving the getaway car and both individuals then fled to North Carolina. STALLARD turned himself in to the Grayson County Sheriff’s Department on June 7, 2007 in Grayson County, Virginia, and BANNISTER was apprehended by special agents of the FBI and officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on June 7, 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The investigation of the case was conducted by the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office, Virginia State Police, and the Bristol Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee of the United States Attorney’s Office in Abingdon prosecuted the case.