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Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
Southern District of Ohio

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Benjamin C. Glassman
, United States Attorney
Contact: Jennifer Thornton

Columbus Man Sentenced to 17 Years for Armed Robberies in Clark, Fairfield Counties

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Dashawn Anthony Starnes, 27, of Columbus, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 204 months in prison for four charges related to armed bank robbery.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Trevor Velinor, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division, Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs, Springfield Police Chief Stephen P. Moody and Baltimore Police Chief Michael W. Tussey  announced the sentence handed down today by Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.

According to the statement of facts, Starnes acted as the getaway driver and/or participated in two armed robberies in the summer of 2015.

On June 30, 2015, Starnes drove Lawrence W. Bell, Jr., 32, of Columbus, to the Fifth Third Bank on Tuttle Road in Springfield, Ohio for the purpose of committing a robbery. On August 18, 2015, Starnes and Bell robbed the Peoples Bank on North Main Street in Baltimore, Ohio. Starnes brandished a pistol at tellers while committing the bank robbery.

Starnes pleaded guilty in March to two counts of bank robbery and two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Agents arrested Starnes on October 4, 2017. He has been in custody since his arrest.

Bell also robbed the First Service Credit Union on East Main Street in Reynoldsburg on June 17, 2015 and brandished a pistol at tellers. He was sentenced in May and also received a term of imprisonment of 17 years.

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by law enforcement, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Prichard, who is representing the United States in this case. 

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Columbus Field Division