Southern Illinois man to serve 28 months for Bethalto bank robbery

A 58-year-old Moro man received a 28-month prison sentence Wednesday in federal court on charges stemming from a staged bank robbery in Bethalto that occurred in 2014.

Acting U.S. Attorney James L. Porter for the Southern District of Illinois says evidence showed that Eugene Babcock was involved in a plan with a bank employee to rob Liberty Bank on Dec. 13, 2014. According to Porter’s press release, Matthew Liebheit, a Liberty Bank manager, called police to report a bank robbery, indicating that a masked individual forced him into the bank at gunpoint prior to the bank opening.

Porter says Liebheit, a 40-year-old man from Moro, gave a description of the suspect’s vehicle as being a “tan station wagon or crossover style vehicle.” He stated that he was forced to give the individual more than $280,000 from the bank’s vault.

Further investigation revealed Liebheit’s truck was used as a getaway vehicle and that Liebheit was involved in the planning of the staged robbery. The masked individual was identified as Babcock, who was allegedly recruited by Liebheit to orchestrate the robbery. Porter says that both agreed that they would split the proceeds after the incident.

On Wednesday, Babcock was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay remaining restitution in the amount of $165,862. Porter says Babcock had returned $115,000 prior to his guilty plea.

Liebheit was sentenced to more than three years in prison in February. His release date is set for March 1, 2019, according to online records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Bethalto Police Department.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Southern Illinois man to serve 28 months for Bethalto bank robbery."