In brief: ‘Nomad Bandit’ admits robberies

The so-called “Nomad Bandit,” suspected of robbing at least 16 banks in the Northwest, pleaded guilty to holding up six of them and attempting to rob a seventh when he appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

Jeremy Lewis Stewart, 28, likely faces a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced Aug. 23 by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea.

Stewart’s bank robbery spree started, FBI agents said, when he became disgusted with an $800 assessment levied against his personal US Bank account while he was in jail on an unrelated charge.

He pleaded guilty to robbing a US Bank branch at 7307 N. Division last December, a bank in Coeur d’Alene and four others in the Seattle area. Stewart also admitted that he tried to rob a bank in Tigard, Ore.,

As part of a plea agreement, Stewart won’t be charged with the other robberies he is suspected of committing.

Stewart was living in Reardan, just west of Spokane, last fall.

Reardan Police Chief Gary Redmond, a former Spokane County sheriff’s deputy, recognized Stewart and alerted the FBI after getting a copy of a bank-robbery poster showing the “Nomad Bandit” robbing a bank in Kent, Wash.

–Bill Morlin

Boise

Early filmmaker seen in albums

Two albums filled with photos, clippings and more about early filmmaker Nell Shipman are giving historians new insight into Shipman’s time at Priest Lake’s Lone Star ranch, where she filmed the movie “Wolf’s Brush” in 1924.

Boise State University professor Tom Trusky said the albums include such treasures as 16 photos of Shipman and her crew at the ranch, a long-defunct resort on the east side of Priest Lake.

The albums were donated by Marybeth Matlock, of Olympia, who received them from her 96-year-old mother-in-law, Joy Matlock, of Olympia.

The albums have been donated to the Shipman Archives at BSU.

Shipman wrote, directed and starred in two dozen silent films, some widely acclaimed. Her movies featured on-location cinematography of beautiful scenery and lots of animals, and she often portrayed a feisty, pioneering female heroine.

To view some of the photos online, go to news.boisestate.edu and click on “Photo albums discovery”

– Betsy Z. Russell