A former local high school basketball standout and an Avondale man were sentenced to multiple years in prison Thursday after taking part in a planned home robbery in Liberty Township.
The two men participated in the robbery that was planned out by the home owner’s 17-year-old daughter.
After the incident, the daughter’s mother Evelyn Shepherd told police that two men entered her bedroom with handguns while she was sleeping and demanded money and her cell phone. She fought them off when they tried to tape her mouth shut.
McElroy and Willis fled with jewelry and Shepherd’s phone, according to Butler County sheriff’s investigators.
The daughter, who met and persuaded McElroy and Willis to rob her mother’s house, has been sentenced to about six months in a juvenile correctional facility. She admitted to complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping charges.
McElroy, a graduate of La Salle High School, played for the Bowling Green University men’s basketball team. As a senior at La Salle, McElroy was honorable mention all-state and first-team all-GCL South.
McElroy, 22, plead guilty in December to complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping, while Willis, 21, plead guilty in November to aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
It was something out of a Hollywood script – bank robber driving a stolen van takes police on a chase, concluding with a standoff that shuts down the city’s biggest highway.
The story began in West Chester when Jackie Jackson Jr., 31, of Cumminsville, entered the PNC Bank, 7301 Tylers Corner Drive, March 29 pulled out his gun – pointing it at bank employees and demanding cash.
After being given approximately $4,280 in cash, Jackson exited the bank by telling the employees to “have a nice day.”
“I pulled my alarm as soon as I saw him coming because I realized that he had a mask on and a backpack and I could see the gun before he walked into the door,” a PNC Bank employee told a 911 dispatcher.
During that call, the bank employees were able to identify to the dispatcher the license plate and give a description of the robber’s van.
One of the supervisors with the West Chester Police Department, Sgt. Jeff Niehaus, saw the vehicle and followed the suspect onto Union Centre Boulevard to Mulhauser Road before eventually pulling the van over on Centre Pointe Drive.
Once Neihaus started his approach to the vehicle, the driver fled the scene and traveled on southbound I-75.
While fleeing police at around 85 mph on I-75, the suspected bank robber crashed and came to a stop at Lock Street and Cooper Avenue, right off the I-75 exit in Lockland.
“While at that location, the suspect threatened the officers on the scene with a handgun several times,” West Chester Police Chief Erik Neihaus said during a press conference on the afternoon of the robbery. “Three of our officers discharged their firearms in response to that threat.”
In radio broadcasts that the West Chester Police Department released the day after the robbery, officers were heard saying, the “suspect is advised he wants to have a shootout,” “he waved the gun out the window” and “is pointing the gun through the windshield at people.”
What was believed to be a handgun turned out to be an Airsoft Pistol or toy gun. The three officers, who were all West Chester Police, discharged seven rounds of shots at the suspect and his vehicle.
“He made it very clear that he wanted to cause gunfire on our part,” Chief Neihaus said.
“There is no doubt that this is situation that turned out for the best. I think we were dealing with someone who was doing bad things and based on the preliminary investigation our response was handled appropriately. I am just happy our officers are safe, the public is safe and that he is in custody.”
While in custody, on the evening of the robbery, Jackson waived his Miranda rights during an interview with West Chester Detective James Thomas.
“I did ask him specifically when he was in the bank, when he was pointing the weapon at the bank employees what his intentions were in pointing the gun at them, he said, he was not trying to hurt anybody, but he just wanted to get his point across, he wanted the money,” Thomas said.
“I asked him if the bank employees thought that was a real gun and he stated ‘yes.’ I also asked if someone had pointed that gun at him if he would have thought it was a real gun, he said, ‘yes.’”
One of those employees who thought the suspect had a real gun was PNC bank employee Michael Bollin.
In his testimony, during the preliminary hearing, Bollin couldn’t identify Jackson Jr. as the robber and said the person who robbed the bank was “completely covered, from head to toe” in black. He also described the suspect as “very stern” and “very calm.” When asked if the robber made any threats, Bollin said that robber said, “hands up, that was about it.”
On Aug. 3, 65 days after the robbery, Jackson was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty earlier to charges of robbery, attempted receiving stolen property and failure to comply with a police signal.
A former local high school basketball standout and Bowling Green State University recruit pleaded guilty Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court to complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping in a July 7 armed home invasion in Liberty Township.
Daniel McElroy and Eddie Willis, both 21, were accused of robbing a Lakota student’s mother after her 16-year-old daughter planned the home invasion.
McElroy and Willis, who pleaded guilty in November to aggravated robbery and kidnapping, both face up to 20 years in prison. Willis also has a one-year gun specification charge.
Both men will be sentenced Jan. 12 before Judge Keith Spaeth.
After the incident, Evelyn Shepherd (the mother) told police that two men entered her bedroom with handguns while she was sleeping and demanded money and her cell phone. She fought them off when they tried to tape her mouth shut.
The suspects fled with jewelry and Shepherd’s phone, according to Butler County sheriff’s investigators.
Prior to the robbery, the woman’s daughter met Willis and McElroy at a party and persuaded them to rob her mother.
The daughter has been sentenced to about six months in a juvenile correctional facility. She admitted to complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping charges.
McElroy, a graduate of La Salle High School, played for the Bowling Green University men’s basketball team. As a senior at La Salle, McElroy was honorable mention all-state and first-team all-GCL South.
An Avondale man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Butler County Common Pleas Court to aggravated robbery and kidnapping in a July 7 armed home invasion in Liberty Township, according to a report on Cincinnati.com.
Eddie Willis, 21 will be sentenced Jan. 12 before Judge Keith Spaeth.
Authorities said the woman’s 16-year-old daughter met Willis and Daniel McElroy, 21, of College Hill, at a party and persuaded them to rob her mother. The daughter and an older brother were home at the time of the incident.
According to a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer, the mother, Evelyn Shepherd, told police that two men entered her bedroom with handguns while she was sleeping and demanded money and her cell phone. She fought them off when they tried to tape her mouth shut.
The suspects fled with costume and valuable jewelry and Shepherd’s phone, according to Butler County sheriff’s investigators.
The daughter has been sentenced to about six months in a juvenile correctional facility. She admitted to complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping charges. McElroy’s case is pending.
McElroy, a graduate of La Salle High School, played for the Bowling Green University men’s basketball team. As a senior at La Salle, McElroy was honorable mention all-state and first-team all-GCL South.
A 16-year-old Liberty Township teen, who set up the armed home invasion and robbery of her mother in July, was sentenced Monday to about six months in a community correctional facility for juvenile offenders in Greene County, according to Cincinnati.com.
Below is a portion of the story written by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Sheila McLaughlin.
The Lakota student also will have to pay court costs and the cost of her court-appointed attorney, Judge Ronald Craft of Butler County Juvenile Court ordered.
And, if she misbehaves while she’s incarcerated, Craft said he would send her to a harsher state juvenile detention center for two years.
The girl – one of three arrested – had earlier admitted to charges of complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to kidnapping.
Her alleged accomplices Eddie C. Willis and Daniel Odell McElroy, both 21 and from Cincinnati, were both charged with aggravated robbery and theft in connection to the incident. McElroy is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 29, while Willis is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 27.
McElroy, a graduate of La Salle High School, played for the Bowling Green University men’s basketball team. As a senior at La Salle, McElroy was honorable mention all-state and first-team all-GCL South.
According to the Enquirer’s report, the mother, Evelyn Shepherd, told police that two men entered her bedroom with handguns while she was sleeping and demanded money and her cell phone. She fought them off when they tried to tape her mouth shut.
The suspects fled with costume and valuable jewelry and Shepherd’s phone, according to Butler County sheriff’s investigators.
On Saturday, Sept. 3, at approximately 1:16 p.m., an unidentified man entered the Chase Bank located at 7722 Cox Road in West Chester, showed the teller a note stating he had a bomb and then demanded cash.
After collecting an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect fled the scene on foot. Witnesses stated that the suspect ran through the parking lot of an adjoining business where he entered a dark colored vehicle with tinted windows (possibly a Chevrolet Malibu or Impala). The vehicle was last seen heading towards I-75.
The suspect remains at large and is described as a 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, African-American male with a slim build. He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, a Cincinnati Reds baseball hat, dark-colored backpack and wearing one “driving” style glove.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect (photos – click to enlarge) or has information about the robbery is asked to contact the West Chester Police Department at 513-777-2231.
A West Chester man, who attempted to kill a gas station attendant, was sentenced to 13 years in prison Thursday.
John Ravencraft, 50, was sentenced by Judge Keith Spaeth on charges of attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery stemming from a March 8 robbery at the Shell Station at 9210 Cincinnati-Columbus Road.
He plead guilty to the charges in Butler County Court of Common Pleas July 22.
Police say that Ravencraft forced the clerk to the ground and attempted to shoot him. The Office of the Butler County Prosecutor reported that Ravencraft held the pistol to the head of the clerk, before it malfunctioned and the clerk was able to fight back.
“This victim is very lucky to be alive,” said Butler County Prosecutor Michael T. Gmoser. “My Assistant Prosecutor Dan Phillips, who worked this case with me, and I are very pleased to help put this violent criminal away. His next victim would not have been as fortunate.”
Ravencraft fled the scene on foot and was arrested the next day at his home located near the gas station.
Authorities allege the girl met two 21-year-old Cincinnati men at a party and persuaded them to rob her mother. The girl and an older brother were home at the time, when the girl left a door unlocked. Police arrested the men on aggravated robbery and theft charges.
The girl entered her plea on Tuesday in Butler County Juvenile Court before Judge Ronald Craft, who ordered her returned to the county’s juvenile detention center. Sentencing is Sept. 12.
Eddie C. Willis and Daniel Odell McElroy, both 21 and from Cincinnati, were both charged with aggravated robbery and theft in connection to the incident.
McElroy (right), a graduate of La Salle High School, played for the Bowling Green University men’s basketball team.
As a senior at La Salle, McElroy was honorable mention all-state and first-team all-GCL South.
According to the offense report, Evelyn Shepherd told police that two black men entered her bedroom with handguns while she was sleeping and demanded money and her cell phone.
They tried to tape her mouth shut but she fought them off, detectives said.
“She just said, ‘Please don’t hurt me. Take anything you want,’” Butler County Sheriff’s Detective Rob Whitlock said.
The suspects fled with jewelry – some costume, some valuable – and Shepherd’s phone. Shepherd sustained minor injuries during the scuffle and was treated at West Chester Hospital.
Willis and McElroy are scheduled to be back in court in early September.
A 28-year-old Ohio man suspected in several armed robberies, including the robbery of U.S. Bank in West Chester, has been arrested in western Montana, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Below is a portion of the report:
The U.S. Marshals Service learned David Owen Cooper was in the Kalispell area and planned to arrest him during a traffic stop Wednesday evening.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry says Cooper refused to pull over and led officers on a pursuit east of Kalispell. Patrol cars struck Cooper’s vehicle. He fled on foot, but was soon apprehended.
Cooper was believed to have been working construction in the Kalispell area.
Police in West Chester, Ohio say Cooper is a suspect in the robbery of a US Bank branch in May. He also is wanted for robberies at a hotel, gas station and ice cream store in the Dayton area.
The U.S. Bank, located at 9135 Cox Road in West Chester, was robbed May 5. The robber flashed a pistol and demanded cash, according West Chester Police Sgt. Matt Tombragel.
According to police, at the time of the incident, the suspect left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash and headed northbound on foot and hid behind a nearby office building. After an exhaustive search of the area, which included the use of police K-9, the suspect was not located.
