He spent 8 years in prison, then robbed another Missouri bank 30 days later, feds say

Thirty days after spending more than eight years in prison, a convicted bank robber went and robbed another bank, according to federal authorities.

Now he’s going back to prison for about six more years.

Charles Edgar King Jr., 58, pleaded guilty to bank robbery on May 31, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

In pleading guilty, the Springfield man admitted that on July 10, 2021, he went to a local bank and gave a teller a handwritten note, authorities said. His note read, “I have a gun this is a robbery $100 bills down to 20 now,” according to the sentencing memorandum.

“Because of the note, and the implied threat of using a firearm to back up his demand, the bank teller ultimately complied with (his) threat and handed over all the money in his bank drawer,” authorities said. He left with $8,815 in stolen money.

Authorities shared surveillance images, which led King’s former probation officer to contact the FBI to identify him the same day of the robbery. King did not wear a mask during the robbery, and his bare hands showed a tattoo of a cross that helped identify him.

King’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 25.

The July 2021 robbery was 30 days after King was released from federal prison, according to court records. He had been convicted of another Missouri bank robbery in 2012 and sentenced to seven years in prison. He served an extra 14 months after “repeatedly violating the terms of his supervised release following incarceration.”

“The collective 98 months imprisonment King served for his prior 2012 bank robbery accounts for the longest period of time in his life in which King did not commit or was convicted of criminal acts that placed the overall community in danger,” prosecutors said.

Following his eight years in prison, King was released without supervision, authorities said.

King was found at a Springfield hotel on July 19, 2021, with help from an anonymous source, according to the news release. FBI agents arrested King after seeing him drive away in a purple Scion Cube without a license plate.

He told the FBI that he had used $2,400 from the bank robbery to buy the purple car. He added that he gave some of the cash away, and he said he spent the rest.

King is ordered to serve five years and 11 months in prison.

This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 5:53 PM with the headline "He spent 8 years in prison, then robbed another Missouri bank 30 days later, feds say."