Lang
1/17/25
A transient arrested earlier this week for allegedly stealing a tent and a bicycle from the Iowa City Walmart is now accused of robbing a downtown bank.
Iowa City Police say just after 2:15 Friday afternoon 39-year-old Nickoles J. Deherrera walked into Wells Fargo Bank at the corner of College and Clinton Streets and handed a note to a teller. The note said to hand over money, with Deherrera reportedly making a threat that the teller would not return home if he didn’t comply. Deherrera then allegedly lifted up his shirt to show the handle of a black replica military-style revolver. The teller handed him about $1.000 in cash and Deherrera fled across the Ped Mall to the Iowa City Public Library, where he was later arrested and charged with 1st Degree Robbery. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Police say earlier in the week Deherrera told an ICPD officer he wanted to commit a bank robbery so he could go to prison. Deherrera was arrested just before 5:30 Wednesday night after he allegedly stole a bicycle and a tent from Walmart on Highway 1 West, then admitted to doing so to investigators. Store employees say Deherrera broke a reflector off the bike after he stole it, and he was arrested for 4th Degree Theft and 5th Degree Criminal Mischief. Deherrera…who told police he was from Boulder, Colorado…faces an additional charge of Possession of Contraband in a Correctional Facility after he was reportedly found with a baggie containing a crystalline substance in his wallet.
If convicted on all of Wednesday’s charges, Deherrera faces a maximum of over six years in prison.