Waco and Temple Bank Robber Sentenced to 100 Years in Federal Prison

United States Attorney Robert Pitman announced that in Waco this afternoon, United States District Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr., sentenced 49-year-old Benjamin Alexander Potts of Dallas, Texas, to 100 years in federal prison and ordered that he pay $518,726.13 restitution for committing two bank robberies in February.

On August 23, 2011, a jury convicted Potts of two counts of bank robbery and two counts of using a firearm during a bank robbery. Based on evidence presented in court, jurors found that on February 2, 2010, Potts, together with co-defendant 49-year-old Ronald Keith Kelley of Dallas, robbed the Independent Bank located on Bosque Boulevard in Waco. Jurors also found that nine days later Potts and Kelly robbed the Bank of America located on South General Bruce Drive in Temple, Texas. Both robberies were carried out at gunpoint.

At sentencing, Judge Smith sentenced Potts to 300 months in federal prison on each of the four counts he was convicted of—all to run consecutively.

Last October, Judge Smith sentenced Kelley to 51 years in federal prison.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation together with the Waco and Temple Police Departments. Assistant United States Attorney Greg Gloff is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.