Noel Arnold (age 35), Jimmy Lee McBride (age 25), and Brittany Riner (age 25), all from Blackshear, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms July 20 in federal district court in Dublin for the armed bank robbery of the Citizens Bank & Trust (CB&T) that occurred in Chauncey on September 2, 2010. That CB&T branch is now closed due to security concerns following the robbery.
United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver stated, “These armed robbers put the lives of bank employees in jeopardy, while they helped themselves to the bank’s money. In return for their violent, criminal acts, they have now been handed decades of federal prison time. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute violent criminals to ensure the safety of those at their work places and in our community.”
According to evidence presented during the defendants’ guilty plea and sentencing hearings, Riner drove Arnold and McBride from Waycross to the Chauncey CB&T in order to rob the bank at gun point. At around 9:00 a.m. on September 2, 2010, Arnold and McBride, both armed with firearms, entered the bank, forced two employees into a separate room where they were told, at gunpoint, to sit on the ground with their eyes closed, and robbed the bank of approximately $25,403 in United States currency.
Arnold was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison; Riner was sentenced to 15 years; and, McBride was sentenced to over 13 years (135 months in prison). Tarver noted that there is no parole in the federal system. All of the defendants were sentenced to an additional five years of supervised release upon their release from prison and were ordered to pay CB&T restitution.
This case was brought to the United States Attorney’s Office by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department and the Waycross Police Department. Tarver recognized the extensive efforts of all agencies in bringing this criminal activity to light.
These arrests and convictions were made possible by the quick actions and investigations by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office in quickly canvassing the area and getting vehicle and physical descriptions of the robbers and their get away driver/vehicle. That canvass quickly lead Dodge County sheriff’s investigators and GBI agents to Pierce County that same afternoon, where the female was taken into custody after a police pursuit.
