Man pleads guilty to 2019 Forest Acres bank robbery, kidnapping. Here’s his sentence
A man who robbed a Forest Acres credit union at gunpoint, leading to a police shooting and a multi-vehicle car crash that closed a portion of Forest Drive, will spend more than 20 years in prison.
Samuel Neathery made a virtual appearance in a Columbia courtroom on Monday to plead guilty to one count of armed robbery and six counts of kidnapping related to the 2019 hold-up that also shut down several area schools as police launched a days-long search for the robber.
Judge Jean Toal sentenced Neathery, a Florida native, to a 29-year sentence, with credit for the three years he has spent locked up at Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. Neathery also faces additional charges for a similar, out-of-state bank robbery.
Prosecutor Dan Goldberg played security camera footage from the scene in February 2019, as Neathery and a female accomplice robbed the South Carolina Federal Credit Union on Forest Drive. The footage showed Neathery enter wearing a hoodie and sunglasses in order to obscure his identity.
The duo forced employees into a safe and demanded money, reportedly threatening employees with being taken hostage. A drive-thru employee who heard the robbers threatening staff at the front of the building called 911 as she escaped out a back door, Goldberg told the court.
Police arrived and fired on the accomplice as she attempted to flee in a car, injuring her and causing a multi-car collision on Forest Drive.
Neathery reportedly fled back into the credit union before escaping out the back on foot. Goldberg noted that his sunglasses, hoodie and gloves were found discarded in a nearby neighborhood as Neathery fled. A police officer, not realizing Neathery was the robber, spoke to him after the robbery without arresting him but confirming his name and capturing his image on his body camera.
Neathery eventually reached his home state of Florida, where he was arrested two weeks later in Kissimmee when a U.S. marshal task force tracked him down in a motel, The State previously reported. Drugs and a gun also were found.
The pair stole $10,000 from the Forest Acres credit union. Police also found $83,000 from a previous bank heist the pair had allegedly carried out in Connecticut.
Before his sentencing, Neathery spoke to the court and noted that he faced up to 25 years in prison in the Connecticut case. “That could be 50 years of my life, so please take that into consideration,” Neathery said.
The prosecution and Neathery’s attorney, William Hodge, agreed to a range of 20 to 30 years in their recommendation. Had the case gone to trial, Goldberg said the state would have pursued a life sentence based on a previous violent crime conviction in Florida.
Records show Neathery served almost a decade in prison in Florida for armed robbery before being released in May 2018.
Hodge said Neathery has no local connections, as his mother lives in Florida and his father in Louisiana. His partner is also his co-defendant in the robbery case, Hodge said.
Also charged in the robbery was Daisy Feliberty. Court records show charges against her are pending.
Hodge has been in jail since his arrest, including the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which time “the only visitor he’s had is me,” Hodge said. Neathery has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and schizophrenia, Hodge said, and has harmed himself in “an attempt just to get out of the jail,” Hodge said.
Goldberg also read a statement on behalf of the victims who were in the credit union at the time of the robbery. Many of them have needed counseling to recover from the incident. Some employees asked to be transferred to a different location after they were threatened with guns in their workplace, and some have changed careers entirely.
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 3:13 PM.
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