FLORIDA – A man who admitted to robbing a Florida bank said he did so because he needed the money to finish the production of his movie, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida has announced.
United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced last week that Nacoe Ray Brown, 54, of Baltimore, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to bank robbery and to violating the terms of his supervised release.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO), Brown faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for the bank robbery offense and up to three years imprisonment for violating the terms of his supervised release.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to the plea agreement and other court documents, Brown was previously convicted of robbing three banks in the Baltimore area in 2001. After a federal jury convicted him of the robberies, he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
In 2020, Brown was granted an early release from prison. Brown then began serving his term of supervised release under the U.S. Probation Office in Baltimore, the USAO said.
“On June 28, 2022, while visiting Florida, Brown robbed the McCoy Federal Credit Union in Belle Isle. Wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, a surgical-style facemask, and plastic gloves, Brown passed a note to the teller threatening that he had a gun and demanding money. He fled the bank with $4,296 in stolen cash. Surveillance cameras captured Brown as he appeared to the teller during the robbery,” the USAO said.
A witness reportedly watched Brown flee the bank and enter a nearby gas station where he is said to have had a change of clothes staged.
“The witness reported this to the Belle Isle Police Department, who quickly responded and located Brown at a hotel where he was staying. Police recovered the demand note and the stolen cash from Brown’s bag. They also recovered the disguise he had discarded in the restroom of the gas station,” the USAO reported.
After Brown was arrested, he allegedly told authorities that he committed the bank robbery because he was filming a movie in Florida and had run out of money to pay for the production.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Belle Isle Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael P. Felicetta.
