'Nomad Bandit' admits string of bank robberies

SPOKANE -- The man the FBI dubbed the "Nomad Bandit" for a bank holdup spree across the Pacific Northwest has pleaded guilty to robbing six banks and attempting to rob a seventh.

Jeremy Lewis Stewart, 28, entered pleas Wednesday in U.S. District Court. U.S. District Judge Edward Shea scheduled sentencing Aug. 23.

Stewart told FBI agents he began robbing banks because he was angry over an $800 assessment levied against his personal bank account while he was in jail on an unrelated charge.

Police were unable to get a good surveillance camera image of him until one was captured in the last heist in the series, a robbery Sept. 18 at a Bank of America branch in Kent.

That widely distributed photograph led to the identification of Stewart by the police chief of Reardan, west of Spokane, where Stewart was living when arrested in October.

The "Nomad Bandit" is suspected of robbing at least 16 banks in the Northwest. As part of a plea agreement, Stewart won't be charged with 10 other robberies he is suspected of committing.

He pleaded guilty to robbing a US Bank branch in Spokane, a bank in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and four others in the Seattle area.

Stewart also admitted that he tried to rob a bank in Tigard, Ore.

Reardan police Chief Gary Redmond, a former Spokane County sheriff's deputy, recognized Stewart and alerted the FBI after getting a copy of a bank-robbery poster showing the "Nomad Bandit" robbing the Kent bank.