Robbery suspect likely to strike again, police say
| • | Bank robbery risk outweighs reward |
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Even as Honolulu police close in on the man they believe is a serial bank robber, they doubt the high-profile suspect in four hold-ups will quit any time soon.
CrimeStoppers photo
The suspect — identified by police as Edward D. Leiffer, who has been charged by the FBI with three of those robberies — appears too predictable.
A Honolulu detective says Edward Leiffer has an "ice" habit.
"I'm looking at the clock and I am waiting for the banks to close and waiting for them to call," Honolulu Detective Letha DeCaires said yesterday afternoon. "I have no doubt he will hit again. It is just a matter of when."
The reason: drugs.
DeCaires said Leiffer is addicted to crystal methamphetamine and like a growing class of criminals he robs banks to help feed his habit.
Meanwhile, police said yesterday that they have arrested a 43-year-old woman who they described as Leiffer's girlfriend. They said she is suspected of hindering the investigation into the recent rash of bank robberies.
The woman was arrested at 8 p.m. Monday at 415 Nahua St. She also may face charges on three separate drug offenses, including promoting dangerous drug use and possession of drug paraphernalia. Police said they found crystal methamphetamine and an ice pipe in her possession when they arrested her.
DeCaires said the circulation of Leiffer's photo around O'ahu will not deter him. "It appears his driving need is greater than the need for his own protection," she said.
Leiffer is wanted by the FBI on a federal warrant for the July 10 robbery of City Bank in Kapahulu, the July 28 robbery of American Savings Bank's Kane'ohe-Kahuhipa branch and the July 30 robbery of American Savings in Pearl City.
Leiffer is also the suspect in the robbery Monday of the Airport Branch of Hawai'i National Bank.
The four robberies increase the number of bank hold-ups this year to 22.
Leiffer has a long history of criminal convictions, most of them minor. Since 1988, the 38-year-old has been convicted 20 times, according to Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center.
His convictions were frequently for driving offenses: driving while intoxicated, driving without a license, driving without insurance.
But he was found guilty on two charges of terroristic threatening in 1990 and three years later, found guilty of promoting a dangerous drug — a serious felony. That conviction in May 1993 brought a 20-year prison sentence.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority, however, set a three-year minimum for Leiffer, said Max Otani, the agency's acting parole and pardons administrator.
In April 1996, Leiffer was free.
But six months later, he was back behind bars on an unspecified parole violation, Otani said.
The parole board gave Leiffer four more chances, but each time he wound up on another parole violation. The board sent him, at various points, to two drug treatment programs: Fresh Start and Victory Outreach.
In February, he was paroled a fifth time. In March, Otani said, Leiffer disappeared again.
It's an all-too-familiar pattern.
"Most of the violators we see pretty much fall into this pattern," Otani said. "The drug use comes into place. We place them into communities, and some of them make it and some of them don't."
In Leiffer's case, he appeared willing to participate in treatment, Otani said.
Advertiser staff writer Walter Wright contributed to this report.
