34-Year-Old Omaha Man Sentenced in Nearly $1 Million Bank Robbery Conspiracy

United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Kevin L. Brown, 34, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha for one count of Conspiracy to Interfere with Interstate Commerce by way of Robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.  Brown was previously convicted in federal court for one of the robberies that was part of this conspiracy.  

United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Brown to a term of 161 months of imprisonment, five years of supervised release, and a $200 special assessment.  Brown received credit for his prior term of imprisonment of 33 months, for a remaining sentence of 128 months.  There is no parole in the federal system. 

Brown’s co-defendant, Charles Ware, was sentenced in federal court on December 15, 2022, to a term of 170 months in federal prison, followed by a term of five years of supervised release.  Brown and Ware were part of a conspiracy to rob federally insured banks across Nebraska.  Brown was responsible for 10 armed bank robberies and Ware was responsible for 9 armed bank robberies.  The evidence showed that the defendants purchased a high quality “old man mask,” that gave them the appearance of being an elderly Caucasian male when first entering the banks.  After the initial robber would enter the bank in the mask, then co-conspirators would rush into the bank after the decoy robber in the mask took initial control of the bank employees.  Once inside the bank, one of the defendants would jump the teller counter in a “takeover”-style bank robbery and proceed to the bank vaults.  The defendants typically used stolen vehicles to drive to the bank robberies to help disassociate themselves from the robberies and evade law enforcement detection.  Ultimately, the defendants robbed Nebraska banks of $959,147.68 combined between June 1, 2015 and June 22, 2018.  Restitution for the bank victims will be determined at a future hearing.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Omaha Police Department, and the Lincoln Police Department.