A twice-busted bank bandit has been handed a sentence of over 13 years in the big house after trying to snatch a bank worker during her latest heist, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced. Staci West League, 52, who pleaded guilty to a trio of charges back in September 2023, including bank robbery and weapons offenses, will now call federal prison her home for the next 165 months, dished out by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, League's criminal spree saw daylight when she attempted a heist at a Comerica Bank in Irving, Texas, flashing a 9mm hand cannon. After coercing a manager and a teller for cash using her gun, she tried to take an employee hostage using the same firearm. Giving her best Bonnie without Clyde impersonation, she led her unwilling accomplice to her pickup truck – only for him to escape to safety at a local fast food joint.
Desperate and short-lived freedom followed League's terror-laden act as she bolted to the Irving Fire Department where besieged by the weight of her actions, she confessed to doing “something very bad.” Recovering the loot and the gun was a swift affair for the feds, who cuffed League without further ado.
Not League's first rodeo, she had a prior conviction for robbing the same bank back in 2019, court docs reveal. That time, she covered a rifle under a blanket, demanded “large bills,” and after a polite “thank you” to the teller, unironically drove straight to the police station to turn herself in. For her debut in a bank robbery, she served a 40-month stint in the clink.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and the Irving Police Department conducted the investigative tango with U.S. Attorneys Robert Withers, along with the former dynamic duo Jordan Ganz and Shane Read prosecuting the case. For more on this case, press officer Erin Dooley can be reached at 214-659-8707 or by shooting an email over to [email protected].
