Sikeston man sentenced to 15 years for bank robbery

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A Southeast Missouri man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a 2020 bank robbery in Sikeston.

Keith Lamar Dunlap, 56, of Sikeston was sentenced Thursday, March 16, to 15 years in federal prison for robbing the Citizens Bank of Sikeston on Oct. 30, 2020. Dunlap was also sentenced to serve a consecutive term of 12 months in federal prison for violating his supervised release in a 2013 bank robbery case. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr.

Dunlap pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to the bank robbery charge. He admitted robbing Citizens Bank of Charleston on Oct. 30, 2020, after handing a note to a teller stating, "give me all stacks of $100 and $50 or I will shoot you." Dunlap was pulled over by Missouri State Highway Patrol in Sikeston in a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the robbery.

As stated in the plea agreement, a trooper found another threatening note in the vehicle as well as the cash taken in the robbery. Dunlap was twice previously convicted of bank robbery in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, in 2009 and 2013, for robbing banks in St. Louis and St. Louis County, respectively.

The FBI, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Sikeston Department of Public Safety investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul W. Hahn handled the prosecution for the government.