An Oregon man was found guilty Friday of robbing the same Umpqua Bank branch twice and trying a third time over a three-month span in 2016.
Marx Wayne Coonrod, 62, of Scappoose, Ore., was found guilty of three counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree attempted robbery.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for April 26. A charge of first-degree robbery carries a prison term between 129 months to 171 months. Senior Deputy Prosecutor James Smith said he may request a sentence beyond the standard range.
Smith said Coonrod robbed the bank Feb. 1, 2016, and March 16, 2016, and planned to do it again on April 22 of that year. Smith’s argument about what happened and who committed the crimes stayed consistent throughout the trial.
“He effectively terrorized that bank branch on three occasions,” Smith said Friday during his closing argument.
The first robbery was carried out by a man wearing a dark-colored, hooded jacket, a dark beanie and scarf. He walked into the bank shortly after 10:30 a.m., according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Witnesses described the robber as being an average height, and having a heavy build and distinctive, almost limping walk, Smith said. He demanded bills in $50 and $100 denominations. He didn’t show a firearm. After the robbery, he walked east from the bank.
Police found fresh tire tracks in the mud and a blue, knit beanie in a nearby alley, court records said. A forensic test found Coonrod’s DNA on the beanie, Smith said.
The second robbery was carried out by a man wearing a hooded jacket, blue jeans, dark-colored gloves, sunglasses and a blue bandana over his face. One of the employees immediately recognized the bandit as the man who had robbed the bank branch in February, according to court documents.
Standing before the jurors, Smith held up a blue bandana found in Coonrod’s home during a police search.
Furthermore, Coonrod has artificial hips and screws in his knee, which gives him a “distinctive walk,” Smith said. All the bank employees agreed that the same person committed the two robberies based on the man’s physique and “the funny walk that he has,” he said.
The defense did not deny that Coonrod was near the bank on April 22. Attorney John Terry said his client was there to get change for a $100 bill. Coonrod never entered the bank; Smith said it’s because Coonrod spotted a security guard. Terry argued Coonrod was not hiding his face that day like the suspect in the other two robberies, so it cannot be proven he intended to rob the bank.
Terry offered two alibis for Coonrod for the robberies in February and March.
He said Coonrod was building a fence in Scappoose on Feb. 1, 2016. Terry called a witness who said as much, though the man was uncertain of the exact date. The defense attorney also offered a receipt from a fencing business in Portland from that day that has Coonrod’s name on it. The receipt did not have a time stamp, however.
On March 16, 2016, Terry said Coonrod went to a beach house with a friend. He arrived at the friend’s house around 11:30 a.m., according to testimony.
Even assuming Coonrod robbed the bank, Terry argued his client did not commit first-degree robbery. Coonrod demanded — requested, instructed, asked — the tellers to hand over money and did not use threats of violence, Terry said.
Smith had argued that employees and customers feared for their safety due to Coonrod’s actions. A teller testified that she remains negatively impacted by the event, he said. A first-degree robbery charge implies a threat of violence, and Smith said Coonrod’s actions were exactly that.
Coonrod showed little emotion when the jury handed down its guilty verdict.
Before jurors were called into the courtroom Thursday, Coonrod spent a couple hours arguing issues he believed were hurting his case, such as the existence of a high-quality photograph that he said proves his pickup truck wasn’t the vehicle seen driving away from the bank, and the possibility that a DNA sample taken by police was contaminated in some way.
Several times, Terry asked his client not to talk about the details of some of the issues.
“My theory is they’re fabricating evidence,” Coonrod told the judge, who ended up denying Coonrod’s motions regarding misconduct and moved forward with the trial.
Coonrod was previously convicted of a series of Vancouver bank robberies in 2006 and 2007, and he reportedly wore a similar disguise in those robberies and walked with a limp, according to court documents. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on those charges, court records say.
