The 71-year-old suspect in a foiled robbery at a US Bank branch is a former volunteer jail chaplain and ran for county commission in Crawford County during the 2006 election.
Billy L. Appier, of Cherokee (Kan.), told a Globe reporter prior to that election that he was a retired trucking company operator and small business owner.
Crawford County sheriff Sandy Horton said he remembers Appier from his ministerial work at the jail.
“It was a positive thing for the inmates,” he said. “I felt he was dependable, and for jail volunteers, that generalyl doesn’t tend to be the rule for how it works.”
Horton said it has been “several years” since Appier volunteered for those duties, and that the jail has employed Salvation Army volunteers for some time.
Appier was charged Wednesday with first-degree attempted robbery, according to a spokesman with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office. Bond was set at $50,000.
Law enforcement, including the FBI, converged on the area after getting calls before noon about a robbery at U.S. Bank, 105 N. Range Line Road.
Appier reportedly told bank employees he had planted a bomb on the roof and demanded money.
Local News
<img src=" http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/updated.gif" border=0 > Bank robbery suspect, Billy L. Appier, former jail chaplain, commission candidate
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