Authorities charge sex offender on the run with Hughesville bank robbery
HUGHESVILLE – A Jersey Shore man found in Illinois Wednesday with a teenage girl has been charged with allegedly robbing First National Bank here in August.
Borough police charged Donald Steven Guthrie, 38, Thursday with one count each of robbery – demanding money from a financial institution, theft and receiving stolen property stemming from a robbery of the bank at 2 S. Main St. about 3:45 p.m. Aug. 27, according to Chief of Police Jason E. Gill.
“Guthrie is in custody in Illinois after being apprehended on other warrants and is awaiting extradition to Lycoming County,” Gill said Thursday afternoon.
An arrest affidavit has not been made available, Gill said. An affidavit was not at District Attorney Eric R. Linhardt’s office or the public defender’s office.
When asked how police were able to track Guthrie, Gill said it was a combination of assistance from law enforcement agencies, the public and a lot of police leg work.
Assistant District Attorney Melissa A. Kalaus is set to prosecute the case but was not prepared Thursday to discuss the case.
Guthrie failed to appear before a county court judge recently, setting off a search by state police, the Lycoming County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Marshals Service.
He was apprehended by local police in the Mount Morris, Ill. and a 14-year-old teenager from Punxsutawney who was with him was found less than 30 minutes later in the same neighborhood, according to Det. William Weber.
An expected county trial was scheduled for this year on charges Guthrie allegedly sent sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl in 2008, 2009 and 2011.