The financial institution robber killed after strapping a bomb to physique and taking a gaggle of individuals hostage throughout a marathon standoff in Bakersfield had a darkish legal historical past of intercourse acts involving underage ladies after operating off throughout his quick navy profession.
FBI brokers shot and killed Anthony Searles-Harris, 41, early Wednesday after he held 10 individuals hostage for 15 hours inside a Chase financial institution within the metropolis’s downtown.
In 2014, he was convicted of three heinous intercourse crimes in opposition to minors, together with lewd or lascivious acts with a baby beneath 14 and oral copulation with a minor beneath 14 with greater than a 10-year age distinction between offender and sufferer.
Searles-Harris was initially charged with a whopping 15 crimes, together with a number of counts of creating threats.
He was sentenced to 12 years in jail and compelled to register as a intercourse offender, however a 2017 enchantment led to a cost being dropped and he was launched the next 12 months.
The pervert’s enchantment revealed scary features of the case, together with how the convicted pedophile held “intercourse events” in the summertime of 2011 the place he handed out medicine and alcohol to minors.
He recorded a pair of underage females bare in a bath and supplied them alcohol provided that they participated in intercourse acts. Two male visitors then entered the toilet, court docket data confirmed, and the women stopped as a result of they had been “already uncomfortable sufficient because it was.”
He additionally appeared to threaten the women in the event that they informed anybody about “what they had been doing.”
“[Searles-Harris] warned them that ‘if [they] informed anyone what he was doing or what [they] had been doing…he would kill [them],’ court docket data confirmed. “He additionally talked about ‘he had already killed anyone earlier than, he had buried them in his yard,’ and ‘[they] would find yourself identical to them if [they] stated something.’”
In one other occasion, he allegedly supplied a 13-year-old lady cash and medicines “in the event that they ‘made a video’ for him having a shower” and fascinating in a intercourse act.
Searles-Harris claimed in a virtually two-hour-long YouTube video posted final 12 months that he was framed and was harmless.
In the course of the standoff, one of many key negotiation phrases Searles-Harris had was to acquire paperwork associated to his case. Police stated he was pissed off with “sure parts” of his case.
Earlier than his arrest, Searles-Harris had a brief stint within the US Military profession from 2006 to 2007 earlier than he was dishonorably discharged for going AWOL, or Absent With out Go away. It’s unclear what he did within the navy.
Legislation enforcement officers additionally stated in a press convention Wednesday that Searles-Harris is “no stranger to legislation enforcement and has a legal historical past of utilizing weapons to commit violent offenses.”
One potential motivation for the crime was notoriety, officers stated. He particularly requested in regards to the FBI’s involvement and appeared to need federal brokers working the case.
Witnesses revealed that Searles-Harris supplied a chilling assertion when he started the theft.
“It’s a foul day to be on the financial institution,” he stated, in keeping with a witness who spoke to KGET.
