Change of plea hearing set for Anderson man charged with Great Southern bank robbery

A change of plea hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. June 29 in U. S. District Court in Springfield for an Anderson man charged with robbing Great Southern Bank, 1232 South Range Line Road in Joplin May 9, 2022.

Vincent Gepson, 64, was placed on the Joplin Police Department's radar when he called the police after someone posted the surveillance photo of the robbery on his Facebook page.

Gepson told JPD Sgt. Luke Stahl that the robber looked like him but that he had not robbed the bank and was in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, at the time of the robbery.

It did not take long for JPD to check its own collection of Gepson booking photos, and match Gepson's tattoos to the robber's.The Anderson Police Department discovered Gepson had borrowed a surgical mask similar to the one worn by the robber during a visit to the Economic Security Agency in Anderson that morning.

At the time of the robbery, Gepson was awaiting trial on a felony possession of a controlled substance charge in Newton County and a felony passing a bad check charge in McDonald County.