West Jordan man charged with 2 July credit union robberies

The indictment alleges Van Duren committed a July 17 robbery of Deseret First Credit Union in Murray and a July 25 robbery of Chartway Federal Credit Union in West Jordan.

This is Van Duren’s second trip to federal court on bank robbery charges, the news release said.  He was charged with 16 bank robberies in an indictment returned in March 2004. He pleaded guilty to eight of the robberies in June 2004 and was sentenced to 130 months in federal prison in September 2004.  He was ordered to pay almost $60,000 in restitution to the banks.  His sentence also included 36 months of supervised release at the end of the sentence, as there is no parole in the federal criminal justice system. He later served an additional 14 months in custody for violations of his supervised release.

Several law enforcement agencies were involved in a coordinated effort to bring Van Duren into custody in connection with the recent credit union robberies, including the Murray and West Jordan Police Departments and the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force.

Following the July first robbery, detectives with the Murray Police Department were able to use surveillance video from the area to identify a male they believed was involved in the robbery as well as the car they believed was used in the robbery.  As law enforcement officers continued the investigation, they developed information they were able to use to arrest Van Duren shortly after the second robbery was committed.

An initial appearance will be scheduled for Van Duren in U.S. District Court. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each of the two counts in the indictment.

Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.