‘Buckeye Bandit’ gets 20 years
You can divide Ikechi W. Emeaghara’s life into two chapters.
The first is about the pastor’s son who earned a 3.3 grade-point-average at Westerville North High School. It’s about the computer engineering student and football player at the University of Findlay, the youth football coach and the father of a 7-year-old boy.
But the second chapter is darker. It is about the “Buckeye Bandit,” who is suspected in 26 bank robberies from 2013 to 2016 while wearing Ohio State University athletic gear. It is about the man
who pleaded guilty to robbing eight banks and holding a BB pistol and informing tellers, “You have 30 seconds before I start shooting.”
Citing the first chapter, defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge James L. Graham to sentence Emeaghara to 10 years in prison.
But prosecutors stressed the second chapter and asked for 20 years.
On Friday in federal court, Graham decided that Emeaghara’s next chapter will be 20 years long and written in a federal prison.
The judge noted Emeaghara’s positive background, and acknowledged his parents and two siblings in the courtroom. But his vicious acts that terrified the banking community “reveals he has another personality that was not reflected until this serious crime.”
Emeaghara, 28, began robbing banks after he lost his job and became desperate, defense attorney Kia M. Wrice told Graham. “Defendant Emeaghara is a fake, an imposter of the real Emeaghara,” she said.
Graham said he had received more letters of support for him than any other defendant.
Wrice asked the judge to think of his client’s young son, “So his father can teach him what not to do and avoid another black man becoming another victim of the system,” she said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary L. Spartis described another man.
“In spite of his great upbringing, he became addicted to gambling, so he decided to rob a bank to pay his debts,” Spartis said. “After satisfying those debts, he continued to rob. Robbing banks became his chosen career path.”
Prosecutors said bank employees told of suffering from nightmares and paranoia. Their family members suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some have left the banks they worked at.
“Nobody, in all those robberies, for a second, did not believe the gun was not real,” Spartis said.
Graham said, “This court, in 30 years on the bench, has not seen a more vicious set of circumstances than this series of robberies.”
No victims were in the courtroom.
According to prosecutors, Emeaghara held the BB gun in six of the eight robberies. During a Jan. 12, 2015, holdup of the Cooper State Bank on the Northwest Side, he ordered workers to open the vault and started counting backward from 30. When they couldn’t open the vault, he cocked the gun.
During an Oct. 21 robbery of a KeyBank on Frantz Road, a teller slipped a tracking device in the bundle of cash she handed him. Columbus police cornered his sport utility vehicle in a parking lot, and officers shot him five times when he pointed the black BB gun at them.
Emeaghara also was ordered to pay $281,359 in restitution to the banks.
Noting that Emeaghara can earn time off for good behavior and leave prison earlier, Graham said, “He will have many productive years ahead of him.”
The eight robberies Emeaghara pleaded guilty to are:
Oct. 31, 2013, at the Wesbanco Bank on South Stygler Road in Gahanna.
Nov. 30, 2013, at the Cooper State Bank on West 5th Avenue in Columbus.
Dec. 6, 2013, at the Wesbanco Bank on South Stygler Road in Gahanna.
July 9, 2014, at the Smart Federal Credit Union on North High Street in Columbus.
Jan. 12, 2015, and April 26, 2015 at the Cooper State Bank on Sawmill Road in Columbus.
March 17, 2016, at the First Merit Bank on East Powell Road in Powell.
Oct. 21, 2016, at Key Bank on Frantz Road in Columbus.