New York jury finds man guilty of credit union robbery-murder
DNA evidence convicts Robert Leon Wilbern who fatally shot credit union member.
A federal jury found Richard Leon Wilbern guilty Friday for the 2003 murder of a credit union member during a branch robbery in Rochester, N.Y.
DNA evidence taken from the robbery scene at the former Xerox Federal Credit Union branch in Webster, N.Y., apparently convinced a jury of Wilbern’s responsibility for the robbery and fatal shooting of Raymond Batzel, who was a member of Xerox Federal Credit Union, which is now the $886 million Xceed Financial Credit Union based in El Segundo, Calif. Another member, Joseph Doud, was shot and injured but survived.
The fatal robbery case that shocked the Rochester community went cold for 13 years, but it was never forgotten.
Finally, in September 2016, the FBI and federal prosecutors announced they solved the cold case with DNA samples, which matched Wilbern’s DNA. The samples were collected from an umbrella that the suspect left behind in the branch.
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