The Orange County District Attorney’s Office on June 4 dismissed bank robbery charges against a 53-year-old ex-convict after federal authorities took over the case of the takeover-style heist in Anaheim.
Eric Walter Gray was charged in May with three counts of kidnapping to commit robbery, two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery, three counts of resisting arrest and a count of escape by someone in custody with a use of force, all felonies. Those charges were dismissed in state court on Tuesday.
Police were called about 4:40 p.m. May 8 to a report of a bank robbery in progress at a BMO branch at 5401 E. La Palma Ave., between Imperial Highway and Lakeview Avenue, according to FBI Special Agent Trevor Twitchell.
Gray had loitered in the bank “for a long time,'' then told an employee he was waiting for a ride, Twitchell said.
After he returned from a bathroom, he leaped a teller counter, announced he had a gun and demanded cash, Twitchell said. When the teller handed over the cash, he stuffed it in his pockets and directed the bank manager and two other employees into a storage room, Twitchell said.
After a while, he let the two employees go, but kept the manager confined for about an hour, the agent said. Gray eventually surrendered to police.
“While in custody at the Anaheim Police Department, Gray was found to have hidden cash and narcotics within his rectal cavity,'' Twitchell said.
Police suspected he had more hidden in him, so they took him to a hospital for a CT scan, where he “repeatedly attempted to escape and fought with officers, resulting in multiple injuries to the officers involved,'' the agent said in an affidavit.
The defendant “has a lengthy criminal history that includes, but is not limited to, grand theft auto, robbery, sexual battery and narcotics-related offenses,'' the agent said.
The defendant had been released from San Quentin prison a day before the bank robbery, the agent said.
Gray pleaded guilty to robbery Sept. 12, 2023, according to court records. He was sentenced to two years in prison for the Oct. 4, 2022, robbery.
