FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885
September 15, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FORMER BANK TELLER SENTENCED IN SCHEME TO STEAL
OVER $27,000 THROUGH SHAM ROBBERY
Also Conspired to Kidnap Co-Workers at Gunpoint to Carry Out
Additional Robbery
BALTIMORE, Maryland - Jayne A. McLean, age 26, of Baltimore was sentenced today to 33 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release following her conviction on June 8, 2006 by a federal jury of three counts of conspiracy to commit bank larceny, bank larceny and conspiracy to carry out an additional bank robbery that contemplated abducting at least two of her former co-workers and forcing them to open the bank’s vaults, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
According to testimony presented at the one week trial, McLean was employed as a teller at the Owen Brown shopping center branch of Chevy Chase Bank in Columbia, Maryland from December 2000 until May 2001. In May 2001, McLean conspired with Windell G. Myers, age 30, and Kendall Jones, age 31, both of Baltimore, to steal money from the bank by carrying out a sham bank robbery. The conspirators agreed that McLean would violate bank security procedures by accumulating an excessive amount of cash in her teller drawer. Myers recruited Jones to enter the bank and present McLean with a threatening demand note. After handing over all the money in her cash drawer and allowing the “robber” to make his escape, McLean would announce to her co-workers that she had been robbed.
According to trial testimony, during her morning shift at the bank on May 16, 2001, McLean accumulated nearly $28,000 in her teller drawer. McLean then met with Myers and Jones at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant during her lunch break. She advised them that she had ample cash in her drawer, and that this would be a good time to come in and carry out the robbery. Shortly thereafter, Jones entered the bank and handed her a threatening note written by Myers, demanding money. McLean gave Jones $27,752 from her teller drawer.
Testimony also showed that between June and October 2001 McLean, who had recently been discharged from her position as a teller, devised another plan to rob the same bank. This plan called for McLean to supply co-conspirators with information about her former co-workers, such as descriptions of the cars they drove, where they lived, and whether they lived with any other persons, so that her co-conspirators could kidnap one of her former employees after they left work and force the employee at gunpoint to return to the bank after hours and open the vault. McLean provided her co-conspirators with several pages of handwritten notes, including personal information about four of her former co-workers at the branch, and the interior layout of the bank, including a diagram of the bank’s vault. The co-conspirators never acted on the information supplied by McLean.
In connection with the May 16, 2001 bank larceny, Jones pleaded guilty to entering a bank to commit a felony offense and was sentenced on May 6, 2005 to 30 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake also ordered Jones to pay restitution of $27,572.20. Myers was convicted on September 8, 2006 by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit bank larceny and bank larceny, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. No sentencing date has yet been set.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the investigative work performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Baltimore City and Howard County Police Departments. Mr. Rosenstein also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jefferson M. Gray and Michael C. Hanlon, who prosecuted the case.
This page last modified—September 15, 2006