A Vandalia, Missouri, man was sentenced to over a decade in federal prison last month for robbing a Warren County bank in 2021.
59-year-old Brian P. Cook of Vandalia, Missouri, was sentenced to 144 months in the Bureau of Prisons followed by three years of supervised release.
Cook was indicted in May 2022 and pleaded guilty in August 2022.
Evidence presented by the government during the sentencing hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge Sara L. Darrow showed that he had pointed what appeared to be a firearm directly at bank tellers at Citizens National Bank to force them to comply with his demands, leading to him stealing $193,000 from the bank’s vault.
Judge Darrow found that Cook’s use of the weapon during the July 2021 robbery was an appropriate factor to enhance his sentence. Judge Darrow stated that Cook’s actions terrorized the bank employees, and broke the trust and safety many find in a small-town bank.
Judge Darrow also noted the premeditated nature of the offense, as the evidence showed that Cook was researching the bank and the surrounding area for months prior to the robbery, and that he had an extensive criminal history that included twelve prior convictions for felony theft-related offenses over nearly forty years.
The statutory penalties for bank robbery are up to twenty years imprisonment, not more than $250,000 fine, and not more than three years of supervised release.
He has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since May 2022.
59-year-old Kimberly A. Cook, his wife, and accomplice in the robbery, had already been sentenced in Warren County Circuit Court in August of 2021 to three years and six months in the Department of Corrections.
