Cairo robbery victims identified

A detention hearing for a 29-year-old Cairo, Illinois, man facing federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with a Thursday armed robbery at First National Bank in Cairo is set for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in federal court in Benton, Illinois, assistant U.S. attorney James M. Cutchin confirmed Sunday.

According to an Illinois State Police news release issued Friday and an affidavit filed in federal court the same day, the suspect, James Nathaniel Watts, was being held in Marion, Illinois.

Police responded to a call of a robbery in progress at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday and discovered three female victims severely wounded in the employee break room of First National Bank, the release said. Preliminary investigative details showed an armed suspect approached the female bank employees in the parking lot as the bank was closing.

The suspect, who was armed with a knife and a semi-automatic handgun, forced the employees inside the bank, where they were later discovered by Cairo police. Anita J. Grace, 52, of Olive Branch, Illinois, and Nita Jo Bush Smith, 52, of Wickliffe, Kentucky, sustained fatal stab wounds, according to the release.

A 23-year-old employee, whose name has not been released, was critically injured, the release said. Attempts to confirm the employee was released from the hospital were unsuccessful Sunday.

The incident remains under investigation by federal authorities, the release said.

According to an affidavit filed Friday in federal court in Benton, the suspect was unable to obtain any money because the bank was closed. Surveillance video showed the suspect take the employees' purses, place the purses in an employee's vehicle and leave in the stolen vehicle, the affidavit said.

The suspect fled the scene south toward Missouri in a 2014 Buick SUV, later identified as one of the victim's vehicles, the release said. Illinois State Police located the vehicle on Interstate 57 and followed it into Illinois near the Canadian Northern Rail tracks, the release said.

Police spotted the vehicle about 6:55 p.m. Thursday and pursued it at speeds more than 100 mph, before the driver abandoned it near a railroad trestle. The suspect fled on foot and was located on top of a railroad trestle. He was surrounded by officers from various agencies, and within 45 minutes, was apprehended by Illinois State Police patrol officers and investigators, Alexander County deputies and FBI agents, the release said.

Online court records show Watts has prior offenses in Illinois and Missouri.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to 11 counts of forgery, for which he was sentenced to eight months in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and in 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

Also in 2006, Watts pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child and was given concurrent sentences of seven years on each count, online court records show.

Watts is on the Illinois State Police sex offender registry.

In 2005, he pleaded guilty in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court to two counts of forgery, and in 2006, he pleaded guilty to passing a bad check, online court records show.

Pertinent address:

Cairo, Ill.