Morrisville suspected bank robber said he did it to pay for medications

July 29, 2011|by KY3 News

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- When Daryl Williams was arrested on Wednesday, he told a detective that he robbed a bank in Morrisville because he didn’t have enough money to buy his medications. Williams, 50, faces bank robbery charges in U.S. District Court in Springfield as well as in state court in Polk County. Law enforcement officers arrested him about 30 minutes after Farmers State Bank was robbed by a man with a large kitchen knife at 11 a.m.

Williams in the past has lived in the Pleasant Hope area east of Morrisville, just south of the Greene/Polk county line. The U.S. attorney’s office identified him only as living in Greene County, and Polk County court records don't list a current address for him.

The bank robber drove east from Morrisville and Williams was arrested near Brighton after Missouri Conservation Agent Susan Swem spotted his pickup, which matched the bank robber's getaway vehicle. Swem saw Williams trying to drive into a field and held him until other law enforcement officers arrived.

The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri charged Williams for the bank robbery on Thursday. The Polk County prosecuting attorney also charged him the same day for the same crime, which is unusual. Usually county prosecutors defer to the feds on bank robberies.

Polk County Prosecuting Attorney Kenneth Ashlock said Friday he had not been contacted by the U.S. attorney office as to charges they filed or any bond that was set. When Ashlock gets that he says he will review the charges they have filed and which charges, if any, the will retain.

Williams is charged in Polk County with first-degree robbery (which carries a possible prison sentence of 10 to 30 years), stealing (2 to 7 years possible) and armed criminal action (3 years or more). If a federal grand jury indicts Williams for bank robbery and he's convicted, the maximum federal prison sentence would be 20 years. Williams has past convictions in Greene County for third-degree assault and driving while impaired.

The information about Williams telling a detective that he couldn't afford his medications is in a detective's probable cause statement used as the basis of the Polk County charges. That statement also says officers found $3,245 in Williams’ truck, although the bank said “over $3,100” was stolen. Detectives also found a large kitchen knife and clothing matching that of the bank robber in Williams' truck.

Williams was in the Greene County jail on Friday, being held until a detention hearing in federal court on Monday morning at 11:30. On the Polk County charges, a judge set a $100,000 bond.

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