An Arkansas man, Brian Keith Mays, aged 58, has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison following an armed bank robbery in Harrah, Oklahoma, as the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Oklahoma announced recently. On July 5, 2024, Mays entered FNB Community Bank, wielding a pistol and demanding money; the tellers complied, and he escaped with over $12,000 only to be caught by diligent FBI agents working in tandem with multiple law enforcement agencies.
Caught in the gears of justice, Mays faced a two-count Superseding Indictment on January 21, which accused him of armed bank robbery and brandishing a weapon during that crime, leading a jury to find him guilty on both counts on March 13 after a three-day trial detailed the evidence, involving surveillance shots and an eyewitness who pinned down his get-away vehicle's tag number. Mays's actions were scrutinized, reviewed, and ultimately untangled by collective efforts, spanning from FBI Oklahoma City and Fort Smith Field Offices to Oklahoma City Police Department and Harrah Police Department, who pooled their resources and expertise to bring the case to a close.
During the sentencing last Monday, U.S. District Judge Bernard M. Jones emphasized the severity and impact of Mays's misdeeds before delivering the 120-month prison sentence; this term will precede a three-year supervised release period, highlighting the weight that such violent actions carry within the justice system. The case prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Gridley and Drew E. Davis, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Laney Ellis, who is funded by a federal grant aimed to decrease violent crime, underscored the threat Mays posed to society during their arguments.
This bank robbery case forms a part of the larger Operation Take Back America, which brings together the DOJ's might to counter illegal immigration and dismantle cartels and transnational criminal organizations—the prosecutors pulling no punches in their quest to sweep the streets clean of violence by drawing on resources from both the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.
