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TOP 3 Strange But True • The most tragic prank I have EVER seen (*MATURE AUDIENCES*)
MrBallen's 18-minute overview: the quickest complete way into the case.
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On the morning of September 26, 2002, four men carried out an armed robbery at a U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk, Nebraska, that resulted in the deaths of five people in under a minute. Gabriel Rodriguez entered the bank first as a lookout before three armed men — Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo, and Erick Vela — entered wearing dark clothing and carrying 9mm handguns. Surveillance video, though without audio, captured the shootings. Sandoval opened fire on tellers Samuel Sun, 50, and Jo Mausbach, 42, and also fatally shot customer Evonne Tuttle, 37. Galindo fatally shot assistant branch manager Lola Elwood, 43, and fired at another customer, Micki Koepke, who was wounded but survived. Vela fatally shot personal banker Lisa Bryant, 29. The robbers fled without taking any money, stole vehicles from a nearby home and then a pickup truck, and were captured roughly three hours later in O'Neill, Nebraska, after their stolen car was tracked via satellite navigation. Rodriguez, who had fled separately in the original getaway car, was arrested later that night in Norfolk. All four men were charged with first-degree murder.
Vela pleaded no contest in 2003 and was sentenced to death in January 2007. Sandoval was convicted in November 2003 and formally sentenced to death in January 2005, and he also received 246 years for related firearm charges. Galindo was convicted in December 2003 and sentenced to death, with the sentence formally imposed in November 2004. Rodriguez was convicted in February 2004 and sentenced in April 2004 to five consecutive life sentences. Appeals by Galindo, Sandoval, Rodriguez, and Vela were rejected at various stages by the Nebraska Supreme Court and, in Sandoval's case, by the U.S. Supreme Court. As of April 2026, Sandoval, Galindo, and Vela remain on death row at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
