Photos: David Ray Powers and Lori Jo Stilley
A Missouri couple charged in connection with a Boone County bank robbery earlier this year has been sentenced to a combined 13 years in federal prison.
David Clay Fowlkes, first assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, says 29-year-old David Ray Powers of Marshfield, Missouri, was sentenced Wednesday.
Powers was sentenced to 120 months, followed by three years of supervised release on one count each of bank robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Powers’ co-defendant, 42-year-old Lori Jo Stilley, also of Marshfield, was sentenced Sept. 17 to 41 months, followed by three years of supervised release on one count of bank robbery.
The Honorable P.K. Holmes III presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fort Smith.
According to court records, on Jan. 30, Powers and Stilley traveled from Missouri to Boone County for the purpose of robbing a bank.
Stilley assisted in the plan by searching on her cellphone for locations of financial institutions. The two viewed banks in order to determine if they could readily escape after a robbery.
They entered the Arvest Bank in Lead Hill and stood in line waiting for a teller. Once called upon, Powers placed a hand-written note on the teller’s desk stating that this was a bank robbery and demanded money. The teller complied with the demands, retrieving money from a drawer totaling $1,387.
The teller placed the money into a tan canvass bank bag and gave it to Powers. He took the bank bag and the hand-written note and left the business through the front door.
After receiving a vehicle description, an Arkansas State Police trooper located a vehicle matching the description of the suspects’ and initiated a traffic stop. After an interview, both Powers and Stilley were arrested.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant for the vehicle and searched it. Inside the vehicle was a purse containing $1,387 in U.S. currency. A loaded handgun was also located under the vehicle’s front seat.
Powers plead guilty in June, and Stilley plead guilty in May.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the Arkansas State Police and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Claude Hawkins prosecuted the case for the United States.
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