Three bank robbers face prison time

Lynn Doan

Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Three bank robbers, who altogether robbed almost $15,000 from seven Las Vegas banks in the last two years, were sentenced to prison Friday and ordered to pay restitution.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro sentenced Henderson resident William Tellez, 30, to 177 months in prison and ordered him to pay $6,179 in restitution. Pro also sentenced 23-year-old Joshua Davidson of Anchorage, Alaska, to 63 months in prison and ordered him to pay $4,114 in restitution.

On the same day, U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson sentenced Las Vegas resident Philip Quackenbush, 40, to 57 months in prison and ordered him to $4,510 in restitution.

"As (Friday's) hearings reflect, the substantial sentences in these cases match the severity of the crimes and the damage they inflict on our community," U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said in a press release.

In February 2002, Tellez handed a note to a teller of the U.S. Bank on North Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas stating that he was robbing the bank. Tellez fled with $3,077, but left behind a Wells Fargo Bank checkbook with his name and account number inside.

Then in May of the same year, Tellez used a gun to rob $3,102 from a Wells Fargo Bank inside the Albertson's Grocery Store on South Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas. He pointed the gun at a woman customer and shot at her son from his getaway car. The bullet struck the man's baseball cap.

In October 2003, Davidson robbed a total of $4,114 from three Wells Fargo Banks in Las Vegas in a two-week period. During his first robbery, Davidson showed a note to a teller stating that he was robbing the bank and would infect everyone in the bank with AIDS if he didn't get the money. During his last two robberies, he showed notes to tellers stating that he had a gun.

Quackenbush robbed $1,100 from a Bank of America on Martin Luther King Boulevard and $3,491 from a Wells Fargo Bank on Jones Boulevard, both in Las Vegas, this February. He was already on federal supervised release for a 1999 robbery.

All three men pleaded guilty, authorities said.

Also, 36-year-old Las Vegas resident James Sparks, pleaded guilty to robbing $1,588 from a Wells Fargo Bank on Nellis Boulevard in Las Vegas. He, too, used a note stating that he had a gun. Sparks is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 24.