A Las Vegas man with three prior bank robbery convictions has been indicted in connection with a September 17 heist at a Citibank branch on Paradise Road, where a suspect in a black Boston Red Sox cap handed a teller a note claiming he had a gun and walked out with $620. Barry Laurence Spell remains in custody awaiting an arraignment scheduled for October 13.
According to KLAS 8 News Now, the robbery unfolded at about 1:10 p.m. at the Citibank branch at 3900 Paradise Road, when the suspect approached a teller, presented a note, and claimed to be armed. He demanded all the $100 and $50 bills in the drawer and gave the teller just 10 seconds to comply, then asked for more money when the initial haul wasn't enough. He left with $620, wearing a black long-sleeve t-shirt, cargo shorts and black shoes, and carrying a red duffel bag, per the station's report.
Surveillance Web Stretched From the Bank to a Construction Site
FBI investigators pieced together the suspect's movements using security video from the bank itself, a nearby hotel, a construction site, and the nearby Sphere, the same report notes. That video came from several locations near the bank.
Investigators recovered the red duffel bag at the construction site, and inside it found what appeared to be the black Red Sox cap and shirt worn during the robbery, along with a black beanie made by a Las Vegas company, the same account indicates. More video, this time from a cab the suspect hailed near Sphere, helped investigators zero in on a name. A representative from the company that made the beanie identified the suspect as Barry Spell, according to investigators cited in the report — Spell was reportedly a former employee of that same company.
A Fourth Robbery Conviction Would Trigger Steep Federal Penalties
Wednesday's indictment included a still image from inside the bank, a still image from the taxi video hailed near Sphere, a Department of Motor Vehicles photo, and a work card photo, per the same account. Spell has three prior bank robbery convictions on his record, dating to 1993, 1998 and 2014; for the 2014 robbery he was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison and received three years of supervised release afterward.
Federal bank robbery committed through force or intimidation carries a statutory maximum of up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the Legal Information Institute.
This Isn't the First Time This Branch Has Been Targeted
This isn't the first brush with robbery for the Paradise Road branch. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police previously sought public help in 2014 after a man attempted to rob the same location, fleeing empty-handed when a bank manager approached the teller counter, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The branch has served Clark County since 1987.
