Appellate court upholds Richard Wilbern conviction in 2003 Xerox robbery-murder

A federal appeals court has kept intact the federal robbery-homicide conviction of Richard Leon Wilbern, writing that there was "overwhelming evidence" of his guilt in the 2003 murder at the Xerox Federal Credit Union in Webster.

A panel for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected multiple defense arguments that maintained Wilbern's trial was unfair, including claims that genetic testing linking him to the crime was unreliable and that witness identification was unconstitutional.

"Taken together, the multiple identifications and circumstantial evidence of Wilbern’s motive and connections to evidence at the scene of the robbery amounted to overwhelming evidence of Wilbern’s guilt," the appellate judges wrote in a ruling released Tuesday.

Wilbern is serving a life sentence. He was convicted by a jury in 2020.

Wilbern was arrested in 2016, more than 12 years after the crime. That year, the FBI posted billboards, hoping to drum up tips about the then-unsolved crime. One tip pointed to Wilbern, a former Xerox employee who had once unsuccessfully sued the company, claiming racial discrimination.

Oddly, Wilbern separately had approached the FBI with claims that his landlord had wrongly evicted him. FBI agents convinced Wilbern that they would use him as a confidential informant in the matter, and duped him into licking an envelope containing a supposed agreement.

The DNA from his saliva was then matched with genetic material left on an umbrella by the man who robbed the Xerox Federal Credit Union.

Though the testing was not as specific as some DNA analysis, it did show a match with Wilbern, who had been fired for chronic absenteeism.

Wearing a blue nylon jacket with FBI lettering and an ill-fitting wig, Wilbern presented himself as a federal agent when he entered the Xerox Federal Credit Union on Aug. 12, 2003. He claimed he was there for a security check, but some bank workers were immediately suspicious.

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Instead, Wilbern robbed the bank and fatally shot Raymond Batzel. He shot another customer, who survived.

The crimes triggered an extensive manhunt, as police checked drivers along the roads at the sprawling manufacturing campus. But no arrests were made, as Wilbern eluded police.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Appellate court upholds Wilbern conviction in 2003 Xerox robbery-murder