Suspect indicted in connection with Cairo bank robbery

A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted James Nathaniel Watts in connection with an attempted bank robbery last month in Cairo, Illinois, that left two women dead and a third critically injured.

The indictment charges Watts, 29, with one count each of attempted armed bank robbery resulting in death and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A criminal complaint filed the day after the robbery alleges Watts illegally possessed a .38-caliber, semi-automatic pistol May 15 and that the gun was found in his possession after a high-speed chase in Cairo. Watts was driving a car stolen from an employee of First National Bank in Cairo, where an attempted robbery had taken place earlier in the day, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office.

Two employees, Anita Grace, 52, of Olive Branch, Illinois, and Nita Jo Bush Smith, 52, of Wickliffe, Kentucky, were slain. A third employee, age 23, was critically wounded and later released from a hospital in Cape Girardeau.

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

The release said the suspect, armed with a knife and a semi-automatic handgun, forced the employees inside the bank, where they were later found by Cairo police. Grace and Smith sustained fatal stab wounds, according to the release. The 23-year-old employee, whose name has not been released, was critically injured.

Online court records show Watts had previous 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. In 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

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.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

800 Washington Ave, Cairo, IL