Bank robber caught
By JOAN CROTHERS Sentinel Writer

Kevin James Anderson

A Murphy, N.C., man, Kevin James Anderson, 20, has been charged with one of the three bank robberies that plagued Towns County last year. After being confronted with DNA and bullet evidence linking him to the robbery, he turned himself in on Monday, November 19, 2007 to the FBI in Gainesville. His father posted a $25,000 property bond, getting him out of jail that same day.

This was the robbery at the Bank of Hiawassee Young Harris branch on September 14, 2006 where two masked men, one described as a slim white male who took the money, and the other described as a black male who threatened the lives of those in the bank by shooting one shot from a .38 into a desk. They escaped in a Ford Mustang stolen from King Ford in Murphy, later setting the car on fire.

According to Towns County Investigator Robert Kern, he recently received a tip about Anderson and when he interviewed Anderson he denied any involvement. Kern immediately got the FBI work- ing on the case. He said it was being handled by the FBI because assault with a deadly weapon makes it a federal case.

FBI agent Barry Witrick released a statement that he had found two witnesses that stated they had heard Anderson and his half-brother, Joshua Hampton, 28, bragging that they had robbed a bank in Young Harris of $4,000 and escaped in a car driven by Jonathan Kisselberg. In an oral and written statement, Anderson admitted his involvement in the robbery, but claimed he did not know that Hampton was bringing a firearm with him. The gun belonged to Anderson's father and was found at the address in Murphy where they [Anderson and his father] live.