Simpsonville Man Pleads Guilty to Armed Bank Robbery

Robert Keith Owens, a former S.C. state trooper from Simpsonville, has pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a North Carolina bank earlier this year.

Owens is accused of robbing a Hendersonville branch of Macon Bank at gunpoint on Feb. 8. 

Owens, of Waxwing Court in the Adam's Run subdivision of Simpsonville, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Aug. 1. He will be sentenced by the court at a later date. 

The federal statutory maximum for bank robbery is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to Lia Bantavani, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Owens' gun charge carries a five-year minimum and an additional $250,000 fine. 

Court documents alleged that a man, later identified as Owens, walked to the bank's customer counter and subsequently the branch manager's office, where he pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and demanded money. He later left the bank with what court records described as a "bulging manila envelope," according to this report from the Hendersonville Times-News.

Owens' guilty plea came after he originally had planned an insanity defense, the paper reported. However, he was later found to be competent to stand trial.

Prior to the bank robbery, Owens also was involved in a domestic dispute in Simpsonville this past Janaury that evolved into a standoff with the Greenville County Sheriff's SWAT team. No one was hurt in the incident and Owens eventually gave himself up peacefully and was charged with one count of criminal domestic violence.