Bank thief lost attempt to overturn conviction for bizarre bank holdup

COREY Donaldson is a self-proclaimed Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. The jury never believed him, now he can’t get out of jail.

**FILE** A December 31, 2012 file photo of Australian man Corey Allan Donaldson, 39, after he robbed a bank in Jackson Hole,...

A MAN who portrayed himself as a modern day Robin Hood will stay behind bars.

Corey Donaldson, from Macclesfield, Victoria but was living in the US, robbed a bank in Wyoming of $US140,000 to give to the poor.

The author of a relationship self-help book has now lost an attempt to overturn his conviction for the bizarre bank holdup on New Year’s Eve in 2012.

When he was first charged, the jury did not buy his defence, that he was going to give money to charities and the homeless, and it announced its guilty verdict after just 50 minutes of deliberations.

Donaldson stuck by his reasoning for the robbery and at trial the court heard how he terrorised a bank manager for 90 minutes by claiming Mexican drug cartel members had placed explosives outside the Jackson Hole bank.

He disguised himself in sunglasses and a driving cap and spoke with a South African accent during the holdup.

AAP reported Donaldson said he would blow up the bank and hunt down and kill the manager if $US2 million was not handed over.

The manager needed psychiatric treatment following the holdup.

Donaldson claimed he travelled around the US, handing out thousands of dollars from the robbery to the homeless and charities.

Prosecutors said, however, the thief stayed in a swanky hotel suite in Utah with a price tag of $US347 a night.

He went under the alias of “Doobie Zonks” during his stay there.

They also said he planned to mail $US11,000 in cash to two family members in Victoria when he was arrested.

During his trial a receipt from a Salvation Army branch in Nevada for $US15,000 was presented but it was not certain whether he did hand out wads of cash.

During his sentencing, Donaldson wept and told stories of growing up in Australia and how a bank foreclosed his family’s home on their four-hectare property.

AAP reported Donaldson, 42, lost an appeal in 2014 before fighting against his conviction again last week.

“It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that this matter is dismissed,” US District Court judge Alan Johnson wrote.

Donaldson represented himself at his initial trial in 2013 but claimed in his latest trial he did not get adequate representation.

Judge Johnson rejected Donaldson’s claim that a public defender who sat alongside him was “deliberately prejudicial”.

Donaldson continues to serve his sentence at North Carolina’s CI Rivers prison.

He lived in the US for 20 years as a green card holder but will be deported back to Australia when he completes his sentence.

AAP reports Donaldson has pitched his heist story to publishers in the hope of book and film deals.