Omaha man sentenced to prison for robbery conspiracy

OMAHA, Neb. -- A conviction for a robbery conspiracy puts an Omaha man in prison for over 13 years.
U.S. Attorney Steven Russell said 34-year-old Kevin Brown, of Omaha, was sentenced in federal court in Omaha on Tuesday. He was convicted for one count of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by way of robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Brown was previously convicted in federal court for one of the robberies that was part of this conspiracy.
Brown will serve 161 months in prison, five-years of supervised release, and a $200 special assessment. Brown received credit for the 33 months in prison that he has already served and has a remaining sentence of 128 months. There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents, Brown’s co-defendant, Charles Ware, was sentenced in federal court on Dec. 15, 2022. Ware was given 170 months in federal prison along with a term of five-years of supervised release.
Officials said Brown and Ware were part of a conspiracy to rob federally insured banks in Nebraska. Brown was responsible for 10 armed bank robberies while Ware was responsible for nine armed bank robberies. The evidence showed that they bought a high quality “old man mask,” that made them look like elderly Caucasian men when first going into the banks.
Authorities said the initial robber would go into the bank with the mask on, then co-conspirators would rush into the bank after the decoy robber in the mask took initial control of the bank employees. One of the defendants would jump the teller counter and go to the bank vaults.
According to court documents, the defendants used stolen vehicles to drive to the bank robberies. The defendants robbed Nebraska banks for a total of $959,147.68 between June 1, 2015 and June 22, 2018. Restitution for the bank victims will be determined at a future hearing.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Omaha Police Department, and the Lincoln Police Department.