BOILING SPRINGS MAN CONVICTED OF INMAN BANK ROBBERY Columbia, South Carolina ---- Acting United States Attorney Kevin F. McDonald stated today that Reginald Earl Rice, age 36, of Boiling Springs, was found guilty of bank robbery by a federal jury. United States District Judge Henry M. Herlong, Jr., of Greenville presided over the trial and will impose sentence after he has reviewed a pre-sentence report which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.

On November 27, 2007, Rice entered the Palmetto Bank at 11500 Asheville Highway in Inman. He presented a bank employee a note demanding money. The victim teller provided Rice with money including a dye pack and bait bills. After Rice left the bank, the dye pack exploded and he dropped the money in the parking lot of the bank. Responding law enforcement officers gathered the dye stained money and bait bills from the parking lot. After he was developed as a suspect, a search warrant was executed at Rice’s Boiling Springs home. Found inside his house were dye stained clothes including a jacket, pants, and shirt worn in the robbery. Rice was later interviewed by the FBI and confessed to the robbery.

Mr. McDonald stated that because of his prior convictions, Rice faces a mandatory life sentence.

The case was investigated by agents of the FBI, Inman Police Department and Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Jeanne Howard of the Greenville office handled the case.