FORT SMITH — A Tulsa man whom investigators called the “fake beard bandit” was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 11 years, 3 months, in prison after he pleaded guilty to eight bank robberies and one attempted robbery in Fort Smith and in three other states.
U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III imposed the sentence on Jason Day, 39, on all ninecounts and ordered them to run concurrently. He also fined Day $5,000 and ordered him to pay $70,508 restitution.
Day, who was arrested Aug. 26 by an FBI agent and a Fort Smith police detective, robbed the banks disguised in a fake beard. In some robberies he also wore a cap and sunglasses.
Day pleaded guilty Feb. 23 to eight counts of bank robbery and one of attempted bank robbery that were contained in fiveindictments issued in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The cases from the other states were transferred to the federal court’s Western District of Arkansas for disposition.
According to court records, he was charged with robbing the First National Bank of Coweta, Okla., on May 24, 2011; two Bank of Oklahoma branches in Oklahoma City on May 26 and June 10, 2011; IBC Bank in Oklahoma Cityon June 29; Bank of Blue Valley in Shawnee, Kan., on July 25; Hometown Bank in Joplin, Mo., on July 13; Bank Midwest in Olathe, Kan., on Aug. 3; and Liberty Bank of Arkansas in Fort Smith on Aug. 23.
He was charged with attempting to rob River Town Federal Credit Union in Fort Smith on July 22. According to court records, the robbery failed when employees hid in the safe area and refused his demandsto return to the counter.
Employees of the some of the banks Day robbed wrote letters recounting their fear and emotional trauma that were included in Day’s pre-sentence investigation, assistant U.S. attorney Kyra Jenner said during the hearing. She also said some employees of the Hometown Bank in Joplin attended Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.
About 20 of Day’s familyand friends attended Tuesday’s sentencing as well.
Day was arrested after a relative recognized Day in a photo of the “fake beard bandit” that was posted on a billboard in Fayetteville.
Jenner asked Holmes to impose the maximum sentence against Day because of his threats to shoot bank employees and the realistic look of the gun. An FBI agent who handled the gun when Day was arrested thought it was real until he attempted to unload it.
Before passing down the sentence, Holmes remarked he was concerned about the serial aspect of the robberies and the effects they had on the bank employees. Day’s explanation that he was addled by prescription narcotics was nojustification for the multiple robberies, the judge said.
Day testified Tuesday, often through tears, that he suffered a severe back injury in the Air Force on a mission aboard an Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft. It left him with crushed vertebrae and lingering pain that was only manageable with strong narcotics.
He was medically discharged from Air Force after 13 years, his wife at that time divorced him and he lost a job working for a charter airline. He sought counseling and help with his back from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but said the VA’s only solution was more drugs.
Day, who had no prior criminal history, said he took to bank robbery because he felt backed into a corner by his economic situation and addiction to pain medication. He said he felt like a different person since he was taken off narcotic medication.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 06/27/2012