A new two-hour “Dateline” on Friday will focus on the bank heists by Michael Benanti and Brian Witham, two men who pleaded guilty to or were convicted of their roles in a violent bank extortion and robbery spree in four states and several cities, including Oak Ridge and Knoxville, NBC News said this week.
Oak Ridge Today covered the case, and the Knoxville News Sentinel had extensive coverage.
Here is the official listing and preview link:
[Read more…]
Lindsay Elaine Pressley
A Powell woman received a five-year sentence and a Knoxville man received a three-year sentence when they pleaded guilty to a robbery in Claxton that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.
Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 29, entered her plea agreement in Anderson County Criminal and Circuit Court in Clinton on October 29.
Her co-defendant, Richard Paul Pressley, 32, entered his plea agreement last week, on Tuesday, April 2.
As part of their plea deals, an aggravated robbery charge filed against both Pressleys was reduced to robbery. Their charges of especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon were reduced to kidnapping. And charges of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping were reduced to conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping. Charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery remained unchanged. All four charges are felony charges.
In each case, the sentences for the individual charges run concurrently, or at the same time.
Lindsay Elaine Pressley
A Claxton woman has been indicted in an alleged robbery at gunpoint in Claxton in 2016 that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.
Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 27, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on November 7. She was arrested Thursday and remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Saturday night, with her bond set at $100,000.
The grand jury indicted Pressley on four charges: aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.
In July, the grand jury indicted a Knoxville man, Richard Norman Pressley, 31, in the case. He was also charged with aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping using a weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. The Pressleys had been identified as husband and wife in a press release from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department after the alleged robbery and kidnapping in a mobile home on Queen Street in Ben’s Mobile Home Park off Edgemoor Road in Claxton on May 21, 2016. [Read more…]
Dominique Leshawn Gordon
Sixteen assault and kidnapping charges in a robbery reported at gunpoint at Hibachi Burger in Oak Ridge in January were sent to a grand jury on Tuesday.
An aggravated robbery charge was dismissed due to a technical issue with a warrant, but that charge is expected to also be considered by the Anderson County Grand Jury. An indictment by the grand jury would move the case from Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge, where it has been, to Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton.
The armed robbery was reported at about 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, January 10, at the Hibachi Burger restaurant, which is in Grove Center.
The defendant, Dominique Leshawn Gordon, 22, allegedly entered Hibachi Burger while displaying a firearm, and he demanded money from the register while showing the gun to several employees and customers, “placing them in fear of serious bodily injury,” according to affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.
After getting the money, Gordon fled on foot, but he was caught a short time later by Oak Ridge Police Department patrol officers, the affidavits said. Officers who searched him after his arrest found the money that had been taken from the restaurant, according to the affidavits, which were filed by ORPD Detective A. Marvell Moore. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a kidnapping and attempted robbery at the Y-12 Federal Credit Union on Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge on Tuesday morning, April 28, 2015. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Michael Benanti
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Tuesday to four consecutive life sentences in federal prison, plus an additional 155 years, for his convictions involving a violent bank extortion and robbery spree in four states and several cities, including Oak Ridge and Knoxville, authorities said.
Michael Anthony Benanti, 45, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Thomas A. Varlan in Knoxville on Tuesday.
Benanti had been convicted by a jury after a trial in U.S. District Court in February 2017. The jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and armed bank extortion, two counts of attempted armed bank extortion, one count of armed bank extortion, three counts of carjacking, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and 10 counts of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
“Often, severe federal penalties, such as mandatory minimum sentences, are the most effective tool to protect the American public from a violent criminal like Benanti,” U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr said in a press release. “The consecutive sentences received by Benanti for firearms violations ensure he will never again be able to victimize families in East Tennessee or elsewhere. The U.S. Attorney’s office is, and remains committed to, prosecuting these crimes and seeking the highest penalties possible to help keep the American people safe.” [Read more…]
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation continues to seek the public’s help in finding a teenager missing from Middle Tennessee, and the agency is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the teacher who is suspected of kidnapping her.
“Efforts to locate missing high school freshman Elizabeth Thomas remain active and ongoing as the concern about her relationship with former teacher Tad Cummins—and his intentions for her—only heighten the urgency surrounding this ongoing AMBER Alert in Tennessee and Alabama,” the TBI said Saturday.
Thomas, 15, disappeared on Monday, March 13, and she is believed to have been kidnapped by 50-year-old Tad Cummins, a former teacher at her school in Maury County, Tennessee, the TBI said. Cummins has been added to the state’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list.
On Tuesday, the school district in Maury County terminated Cummins in the wake of an ongoing investigation into alleged inappropriate contact he had with Thomas at the school earlier this year, the TBI said.
Maury County is south of Nashville. [Read more…]
Brandon Campbell, Richard Howe, and Jacob Tate are pictured above. (Photos by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
Three men have been indicted on child rape, conspiracy, and kidnapping charges. The Anderson County Grand Jury indicted the three on March 7.
The three men, all 20 years old, are Brandon James Campbell and Richard Bradley Howe of Oak Ridge, and Jacob Tate, whose address isn’t listed in the indictments. All three have been charged with rape of a child and especially aggravated kidnapping, both Class A felonies, and aggravated sexual battery and conspiracy to commit rape of a child, both Class B felonies.
Campbell and Howe face an additional child rape charge.
The child was younger than 13, according to the indictments. The alleged crimes occurred between February 7 and February 8, 2016, according to the indictments. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to an alleged kidnapping and attempted robbery at the Y-12 Federal Credit Union on Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge on Tuesday morning, April 28, 2015. A trial for one of the defendants has been rescheduled to November 7, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Two federal trials for crimes allegedly committed in Oak Ridge, including one that involved an alleged bank extortion attempt, have been rescheduled.
The first trial had been scheduled for Tuesday, March 29, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. But it has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, November 7. That trial is for Michael Anthony Benanti, 43, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Benanti and a co-defendant, Brian Scott Witham, 45, of Waterville, Maine, had been named in a 15-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury in December. They were accused of kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob three banks and credit unions in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Elizabethton. The Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge was one of the three financial institutions that was targeted.
Witham pleaded guilty March 1. His sentencing is set for August 17. He reportedly faces a minimum 42-year prison term, but could receive a life term. [Read more…]
Dmantiz Bowser
An Oak Ridge man was charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery after he allegedly held a gun to the back of his ex-girlfriend’s head before stealing her cell phones and $1,200 in cash, authorities said.
The robbery was reported at about 9:16 a.m. Friday, December 11, at a home on Northwestern Avenue.
The ex-girlfriend told Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Kevin Merritt that she awoke to a loud noise and found Dmantiz A. Bowser, 21, in the back bedroom. She asked him what he was doing, according to warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
“She said the defendant then pulled a small black gun out of his front pocket, grabbed her by her right arm and twisted it behind her back,” the warrants said. “She said he then shoved her face down in the couch, putting his knee on her back, and putting the pistol to the back of her head. [Read more…]
Michael Benanti (Photo courtesy WATE-TV in Knoxville)
Brian Witham (Photo courtesy WATE-TV in Knoxville)
Note: This story was last updated at 10:37 p.m.
Two men were indicted Tuesday for plots that involved kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob three banks and credit unions in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Elizabethton, Tennessee.
The two men are Michael Benanti and Brian Witham. One is from Pennsylvania, and the other is from Maine.
The three financial institutions they targeted were Y-12 Federal Credit Union on Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge, SmartBank on Advantage Place in Knoxville, and Northeast Community Credit Union on Jason Witten Way in Elizabethton.
The indictment of Benanti and Witham by a federal grand jury for the armed bank extortions was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. You can read the 15-count indictment, which also includes charges of carjacking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, here. [Read more…]
An early 2000s Ford Taurus is pictured above. (Image provided by FBI)
Authorities have released a description of the vehicle associated with the person of interest sought in the July kidnapping and extortion at SmartBank in Knoxville, an incident that is believed to be connected to a similar one at Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge in April.
The vehicle is described as an early 2000s, powder blue/grey, Ford Taurus, with damage on the front passenger side bumper, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a Wednesday morning press release.
The person of interest was observed in the front passenger seat of this vehicle on July 1 in the vicinity of Swathmore Court and Dunwoody Drive in Knoxville.
The vehicle pictured in the photo above is of a similar make, model, and color of the vehicle that was observed, the FBI said. [Read more…]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Knoxville on Wednesday released composite sketches of two subjects and one person of interest in alleged kidnappings and extortions involving Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge in April and SmartBank in Knoxville in July. Pictured above are FBI Knoxville Special Agent in Charge Edward Reinhold, center; Knox County Sheriff’s Office Major Michael MacLean, right; and Knoxville Police Department Deputy Chief Nate Allen. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
KNOXVILLE—Two men entered two different homes in kidnappings and extortions involving Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge in April and SmartBank in Knoxville in July, and a woman, possibly with an infant or a toddler, might have entered the first, officials said Wednesday.
A blue four-door car was spotted in the area of the second home about a week before the second incident, said Edward Reinhold, special agent in charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Knoxville.
It’s possible there could be a fourth person involved, and it’s not clear if the suspects are still in the area.
Reinhold said both men were wearing disguises. The woman was not, but she might have been wearing a wig and sunglasses. [Read more…]
