Delhi bank robbery ringleader sentenced to 49 years
BY SHARON COOLIDGE | SCOOLIDGE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brown had it all planned out.
Rob North Side Bank and Trust in Delhi Town****p, then head west to the
Indiana riverboat casinos to launder the money by turning it in for chips.
Unfortunately for Brown and his three cohorts, a former police officer
getting his car washed nearby spotted the gun-toting, masked gang leaving
the bank just before closing last June 15 and made a 911 call that led to
their capture and the recovery of the stolen $27,000, Assistant Hamilton
County Prosecutor David Wood said.
Even after his arrest, the 42-year-old Westwood man was not to be
deterred. Held in his own cell at the Hamilton County Justice Center for
disciplinary reasons, Brown spent three months trying to dig his way out,
much like the Tim Robbins/Morgan Freeman movie "The Shawshank Redemption."
Only he wasn't as successful as Robbins.
A fellow inmate, aware of the escape plan, told a relative, who re****ted
the escape plot to the sheriff's office, according to prosecutors. Brown
was caught before his escape route was completed.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ethna Cooper sentenced Brown on Monday
to spend 49 years in prison on two charges of robbery, three charges of
kidnapping, escape and vandalism. A jury found Brown guilty March 3.
His three co-defendants, Hasani Brown, 20, of Evanston; Leslie Gardner,
20, of Silverton; and Mikaela Williams, 22, of Walnut Hills, have
previously pleaded guilty to three charges of robbery. At sentencing April
9 they face up to 24 years in prison. The women have no prior criminal
histories, records show.
Wood said James Brown was the "mastermind, the ringleader."
"I can't think of another defendant who more needs to be warehoused and
kept away from the community as long as possible," Wood said.
Cooper agreed.
"You are the poster child for a career criminal," she said. "It does not
appear to me there is any chance for rehabilitation."
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