A 72-year-old El Paso man who has a prosthetic leg will spend 15 years in prison for his role in trying to rob a bank at gunpoint.
James Earl Green Jr., 72, recently went before U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix and received a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to rob a branch of First State Bank in Abilene, Texas. He was charged in August of 2020, and convicted after a trial in April. At sentencing, one of the victims expressed how she suffered anxiety and fear caused by Green’s actions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a prepared statement
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the case began on the morning of September 24, 2019, when a man wearing a ski mask approached and threatened at gunpoint one First State Bank employee as she entered the bank and began to prepare for her daily operations. The man held the victim at gunpoint inside the bank for approximately twenty minutes as he demanded money to be put into two duffle bags. When a second female employee entered the bank, both women scuffled with Green forcing the man to flee without the cash. Prosecutors revealed that during the scuffle, Green struck one of the women in the head with his handgun.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the evidence presented during the hearing on the case included a clip of video surveillance from inside the bank showing the man walking with a significant limp and threatening one of the bank’s employees with a gun.
In the days after the robbery, authorities received an anonymous tip about a gold Cadillac parked outside the bank the morning of the robbery. Investigators checked surveillance videos, identified the vehicle, and noticed it was missing a front hubcap. Using the information cops were able to track down the vehicle and get Green’s address in El Paso. The man had a criminal history and was out on parole.
Authorities reached out to Green’s parole officer and showed him the video, the officer told investigators that Green walks like the man in the video due to a prosthetic leg he wears. He also provided investigators photos of the gold Cadillac Green owned.
During the course of the investigation, the Texas Department of Public Safety analyzed the DNA found on the duffle bags left at the scene and matched it to Green’s. Authorities also tracked Green’s cell phone data that confirmed that he traveled from El Paso to Abilene days before the robbery.
Luisana Moreno is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.