Smyrna Bank Robber Gets 32 Years In Prison

ATLANTA, GA — A Duluth man was sentenced Thursday to 32 years in prison for committing bank robberies two years ago in Smyrna and Doraville, according to federal prosecutors. Darius Taurean Caldwell, 33, was caught by Smyrna police officers soon after robbing a Bank of America branch.

“If not for the quick response by the Smyrna Police Department, this violent offender more than likely would have continued robbing and threatening innocent citizens,” said Ricardo Grave de Peralta, the FBI's acting special agent in charge in Atlanta, in a statement.

On Sept. 7, 2016, Caldwell walked into the bank branch in Smyrna wearing a blue face mask and an inside-out T-shirt, say prosecutors. He reached past a terrified customer, stuck a handgun in a teller’s face, demanded money and fled on foot with several thousand dollars.

But Smyrna police officers captured Caldwell within minutes while he hid behind a nearby residence, prosecutors said. Investigators then linked Caldwell to an armed robbery two weeks earlier at a North of Atlanta Bank branch in Doraville.

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In April, a federal jury convicted Campbell on two counts of armed bank robbery, two counts of brandishing a firearm during the commission of those robberies, and possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a felony.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday in federal court, Campbell also was ordered to serve five years of supervised release after his prison sentence and to pay $14,841 in restitution.

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