Corey Donaldson, the 'Australian Robin Hood' found guilty in US
Peter Mitchell
AAP May 03, 20138:12AM
Australian Corey Allan Donaldson, shown arriving at a bank in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which he admitted robbing on New Year's Eve. Source: Supplied
A JURY in the United States has taken just 50 minutes to find Australian Corey Donaldson guilty of robbing a bank in Wyoming.
In his closing address to the jury in the US District Court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Thursday, Donaldson, who represented himself, admitted he robbed the US Bank branch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on New Year's Eve.
However, Donaldson asked the jury to find him not guilty because " it is the patriotic thing to do" and it was time to make a stand against banks.
His advice fell on deaf ears.
The jury took just 50 minutes to convict him.
Donaldson, 40, originally from Melbourne, faces up 20 years in a US federal prison.
He compared himself to Robin Hood and US civil rights champion Rosa Parks, telling the jurors he robbed the bank to give to the poor and make history.
A police picture of Corey Allan Donaldson.
To commit the robbery, he handed a note to the bank manager warning him Mexican drug cartel members were waiting outside, had placed military grade explosives in the snow around the bank and would hunt down and kill him if money was not handed over to Donaldson.
Earlier, he pleaded with the jury to find him not guilty because "it is the patriotic thing to do" and it was time to make a stand against banks.
"We are here to create history," Donaldson, who said he robbed the bank to give the money to America's poor, told the US District Court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Thursday.
Prosecutor Todd Shugart rejected Donaldson's remarks, saying it was "obscene" Donaldson compared himself to Ms Parks and Americans who fought for independence against the British.
Mr Shugart also noted Donaldson was staying in a $US347 a night suite at Salt Lake City's Grand America Hotel when he was arrested.
"The last time I checked, Robin Hood lived in a forest, not a five diamond hotel," the prosecutor said.
Donaldson, who moved to the US in 1996 and has written relationship books, grew up on the outskirts of Melbourne.
