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Des Moines man pleads not guilty to Vincent robbery

Alonzo Mayfield

A Des Moines man accused of robbing the Vincent City Hall in 2019 has pleaded not guilty in Webster County District Court.

Alonzo C. Mayfield, 52, is charged with second-degree robbery and third-degree kidnapping after law enforcement say he entered the Vincent City Hall building, 104 Arthur St., on May 7, 2019, and robbed it, stealing $167 and locking the city clerk in the walk-in safe before fleeing. Both charges are Class C forcible felonies.

Mayfield pleaded not guilty to both counts on April 1.

According to the criminal complaint, around 3:30 p.m. on May 7, 2019, Mayfield entered the Vincent City Hall and told the city clerk inside, Sarah Geisinger, that “it was a robbery” and demanded money. The Vincent City Hall was formerly a bank.

Geisinger told Mayfield that the building was not a bank, but Mayfield continued to argue that it was because the building had the word “bank” inscribed on the side.

Complaints said Mayfield jumped over the counter before forcing Geisinger to give him money. After locking the victim in the building’s walk-in safe, complaints said he left the building with $167 and Geisinger’s purse.

An August 2019 news story about the robbery of Bankers Trust Bank in Des Moines gave a detective at the Webster County Sheriff’s Office a new lead in the case, with photographs of the suspect in that robbery appearing to match the surveillance video and description captured in the Vincent robbery.

Des Moines investigators led the Webster County investigator to a friend of Mayfield, who said that the defendant showed her a photograph of the surveillance video from the Vincent robbery and said “look, this is me.”

“The associate believed that the defendant was joking, but the defendant went on to say that he thought the building he was robbing was a bank,” the criminal complaint said.

The complaint also said that Mayfield confirmed the amount stolen with his friend — a figure that was never released from the public.

The defendant’s friend said she recognized the dreadlock wig seen in surveillance videos and given in descriptions, saying she threw them away in a Des Moines garbage bin..

When pleading not guilty to the Vincent robbery on April 1, Mayfield waived his right to a speedy trial. His jury trial is scheduled to start on June 29.

Mayfield’s bond was set at $21,000 cash only. He remains in the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility on unrelated convictions, including first-degree theft and extortion in connection to the Bankers Trust robbery in Des Moines. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of six years, after accepting a plea agreement to plead guilty in September 2020.

Mayfield is also facing a charge of absence from custody, a serious misdemeanor, for failing to return to the Fort Dodge Residential Facility after signing out to go to Fareway on April 17, 2019. Mayfield had been residing at the halfway house while on parole for a third-degree burglary conviction in Polk County.

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