Lubbock Area Bank Robber Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

 A Lubbock area bank robber was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, the statutory maximum, announced Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah.

Eric Dion Warren, 50, plead guilty to bank robbery in August 2020 and was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix.

According to court documents, on June 7, 2019, at approximately 12:45 p.m., Mr. Warren entered AIM Bank in Wolfforth, Texas.  He approached one of the tellers and placed a paper fast food bag and a demand note on the counter which read: “This is a f------ robbery. Play with me and die. I want $10,000 in 50 and 100 dollar bills now you got 1 minute or I will kill you.”  Mr. Warren then pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and said, “I ain’t playing around, I only want 100s and 50s.”

The teller gave Mr. Warren money from her drawer including strapped twenty-dollar bills with recorded serial numbers.  After the teller placed the money in Mr. Warren’s bag, he said, “Don’t push any buttons” and then fled the scene with several thousand dollars currency.

Mr. Warren admitted to driving away in a vehicle that had been loaned to him by a car dealership, while the sale of a black BMW was being finalized.  Approximately 15 minutes after the robbery took place, Mr. Warren arrived in the loaned vehicle at the car dealership in Lubbock.  Mr. Warren began waving the cash that he had illegally obtained from the bank robbery at employees in the car dealership.  He entered the dealership’s finance office and attempted to finalize the purchase of the BMW by giving the dealership $3,000 cash as a down payment.

While Mr. Warren was in the dealership’s finance office, an employee received a phone call informing him of the recent bank robbery.  The employee realized that the vehicle used in the bank robbery matched the vehicle the dealership had loaned to Mr. Warren and he alerted law enforcement.

Mr. Warren was arrested with $5,086 in cash.  The serial numbers of the money found on Mr. Warren’s person were cross-referenced and matched the numbers of the bills stolen from AIM bank.  Law enforcement also recovered a painted pellet gun, resembling a real handgun, approximately 10 feet way from Mr. Warren at the time of his arrest.  The demand note given to the teller at the bank was analyzed and confirmed the existence of Mr. Warren’s fingerprints and DNA.

The FBI’s Lubbock Resident Agency conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Rancourt prosecuted the case.