Tuaca Elaine Deason, Candidate For Worst Co-Worker Of The Year

Pretending to be a victim of your partner in crime

​We've never worked in a bank, but we assume that among the worst parts of the job would involve an armed robbery where the gunman grabs you around the neck and points a gun at your head.

It must make matters worse when you later find out your co-worker, the person who opens the bank branch with you in the morning, was involved with putting you through that little bit of heartstopping hell.

So Tuaca Elaine Deason, 25, will probably not be getting many votes for Co-Worker of the Year anytime soon. Also complicating matters on that score will be the fact she's
spending the next 30 months in a federal prison.

Deason was sentenced yesterday for participating in a scheme to rob $280,000 from a Wachovia bank near West U last year.
District Judge Ewing Werlein, in handing down the sentence, told her "As the insider, you submitted your co-employee to the terrible experience of a bank robbery."

Deason conspired with Erik Roshan Roy, 38, to rob the bank. As she and her fellow employee were setting up shop before the branch opened, Deason said she had left some keys in her car and went to retrieve them.

As she returned to the workplace, Roy followed her in. Deason then pretended she had no idea what was going on. As the U.S. Attorney's office describes it:

[Roy] brandished what seemed to be a firearm. Next, Roy shouted "DON'T NOBODY MOVE, NOBODY GETS HURT, LET'S GO." Once inside the lobby of the bank, Roy physically restrained another bank employee by holding her around the neck and pointed what appeared to be a firearm at her head. Roy then directed both Deason and the employee to the bank's vault.

Once inside the vault room, Roy instructed Deason to remove money from the vault and place it into a bag which Roy produced. Roy then instructed Deason and the bank employee to crawl out of the vault room and to lie on the floor outside of the vault room.

While Deason and the employee were lying on the floor, Roy stated, "ALL I NEED IS 15 MINUTES, IF YOU LOOK UP, I WILL KILL YOU."

Pleasant way to start the day!!

We assume Deason spent the time on the floor counseling her fellow worker that they should definitely give the robber at least 15 minutes, or they would be shot.

Roy was sentenced last week to nine years in prison.