CEDAR RAPDS – A man who robbed banks in Aurora and Frederika, Iowa, and pistol whipped a bank customer during the robbery in Frederika, was sentenced last week in federal court in Cedar Rapids to 235 months in federal prison.
Steven Vandewalker, 38, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a July 30, 2013, guilty plea to one count of bank robbery and using a dangerous weapon to assault another person during the course of the robbery.
In a plea agreement, Vandewalker admitted he entered a bank in Frederika, Iowa, around 12:30 p.m. on October 23, 2012, carrying a handgun. Vandewalker was wearing a baseball cap and a mask covering the bottom of his face. After entering the bank, Vandewalker went into an office where a bank employee and a customer were talking and yelled at the two to get on the floor. Vandewalker then hit the customer in the face with the handgun, causing the customer to fall to the floor and breaking the customer’s right orbital socket. Vandewalker then went behind the teller counter and had a teller give him cash from the drawers and the bank safe. Vandewalker then fled the bank with more than $36,000. On October 26, 2012, officers searched Vandewalker’s home in Waterloo, finding $26,000 in cash and a handgun. At the sentencing hearing, Vandewalker admitted he also robbed a bank in Aurora, Iowa, on September 11, 2012, making off with over $11,000.
Vandewalker was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Vandewalker was sentenced to 235 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $30,005.38 in restitution to both banks and two insurance companies. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Vandewalker is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
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The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Bremer County Sheriff’s Office, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, the Waterloo Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
