Forest Acres bank robbery suspect arrested in Florida
The man police say robbed a bank in Forest Acres in early February was arrested in Florida.
Samuel Neathery, a suspect in the Feb. 5 robbery of the S.C. Federal Credit Union on Forest Drive, was booked in the Osceola County jail on Saturday, according to detention center records.
The Forest Acres Police Department said that Neathery, 29, was arrested late Friday night in Kissimmee, Florida by the U.S. Marshal’s Florida-Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force.
He is being held with no bond as a wanted fugitive.
Police will charge Neathery with armed robbery, six counts of kidnapping and gun charges, according to Forest Acres police. Extradition to South Carolina will begin next week, police said. Neathery could fight being brought to South Carolina, according to Forest Acres Police Chief Gene Sealy. The goal was to get Neathery in jail as quickly as possible, Sealy said.
“We’ve been on it hot and heavy,” Sealy said. “I know our residents are going to be relieved. I hear that every day if I’m out in the community, ‘Have you caught the bank robber yet?’”
On Feb. 5 around 10 a.m., police got an emergency signal from the credit union. As officers arrived, Neathery and his alleged accomplice, Daisy Esther Feliberty, tried to leave the bank parking lot. According to police, Neathery went back back into the bank and escaped out a back door. Police initially believed Neathery was holding hostages after he returned to the bank, but they determined later that wasn’t true.
Feliberty crashed their gold Toyota sedan when an officer fired at the vehicle, according to police. Feliberty was shot twice, according to Forest Acres Police Chief Gene Sealy. She caused four other cars to crash on Forest Drive, leaving engine and vehicle parts strewn on the road.
A two-day-long search ensued for Neathery in residential parts of Forest Acres and included a plane, helicopter, multiple officers and search dogs. After the two days, it was announced that Neathery was no longer in Forest Acres and was suspected to be in the Charleston area.
Police stopped Neathery on the day of the robbery near the bank, but it was unknown at the time that he was a suspect and he was not arrested.
Sealy called the two week search for Neathery a “full court press.” Authorities received tips from across the East Coast reporting having seen Neathery at some point, according to Sealy. A piece of that information led Marshal’s to to the central Florida town where they arrested the suspect.
Neathery will likely be connected to other alleged robberies in other states, Sealy expects. The Florida man was connected to crime in his past.
In May 2008 authorities in Polk County charged Neathery with armed robbery, according to Florida Department of Corrections records. In 2009 he was convicted of the felony and sent to prison for 10 years.
Neathery got out of Florida state prison in May 2018, a background check shows.
“Hopefully he’ll be there (prison) longer,” Sealy said.
Police arrested Feliberty two days after the alleged robbery. She was charged with armed robbery, six counts of kidnapping for holding the bank employees against their will, as well as possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a violent crime and possession of a stolen handgun, Forest Acres Police said in a news release.
She waived her bond hearing and is still being held at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County.
Feliberty spent time in jail before.
In 2009, Feliberty was charged with selling marijuana and cocaine in Osceola County, Florida, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. She began a one-year sentence for the crimes in 2010, getting out of prison in May 2011.
Feliberty and Neathery both lived in a town south of Orlando about 12 miles from Disney World, according to a background check and public records. They lived a little more than five minutes from each other.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 9:14 AM.