OKLAHOMA CITY – A Lawton man well-known to southwest Oklahoma law enforcement officers was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison recently for using a fake bomb to rob a Lawton financial institution two years ago.
John Scott Brooks, 39, was convicted a year ago after a two-day trial. The jury deliberated approximately two hours before finding him guilty of one count of bank robbery but acquitted him on a charge of making a bomb threat.
At the sentencing on April 8, U.S. District Court Judge Scott Palk ordered Brooks to serve 120 months in federal prison. In support of his sentence, Palk cited, among other things, the serious nature of the offense, Brooks’ criminal history, and the impact the robbery had on the teller. The judge also ordered Brooks to serve five years of supervised release when released from federal prison.
In addition, Brooks was ordered to pay $10,945 in restitution, the amount that was stolen during the holdup.
Brooks has been in custody since April 2, 2020. April 19 will mark the third consecutive year in which he has observed his birthday while incarcerated.
According to evidence at trial, Brooks pulled up to the drive-through teller lane at the Southwest Oklahoma Federal Credit Union located at 6714 W. Gore Boulevard, at approximately 10:40 a.m. on March 23, 2020, and placed a fake bomb in the teller drawer. He immediately showed the teller a timer, which was counting down.
The teller placed $10,945, including three $20 “bait” bills, into the drawer “and sent it back to the robber,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. The bandit “took the money, demand note, and device out of the drawer and drove away,” the agent reported.
Brooks subsequently created a cover story and erased electronic information from his cell phone, investigators learned.
He drove to another bank and then an hour south to Wichita Falls, Texas, so he could tell law enforcement he was somewhere else at the time of the robbery. Evidence at trial included testimony from the bank teller; bank surveillance footage of the robbery; a bank robbery list found at Brooks’ residence; and a vehicle image comparison analysis performed by an FBI forensic examiner which showed Brooks changed the appearance of his vehicle immediately after the robbery.
Additionally, multiple witnesses testified that they recognized Brooks in the still photo of surveillance footage taken from the robbery.
An informant told investigators that Brooks was struggling financially and was “desperate for money.” He owned a construction company, the informant said, “and owed a lot of people money for construction materials.”
A civil suit was filed in Comanche County District Court in 2018 against Brooks and his construction company over a debt amounting to less than $10,000, the Oklahoma State Courts Network shows. Records indicate that case is still pending four years later.
The FBI said the informant also claimed Brooks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder “and was not taking his medication consistently.”
OSCN records reflect that over the past 20 years John Scott Brooks has been arrested on multiple misdemeanor and felony charges by the Lawton Police Department, the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department, Tillman County law enforcement officers, the Duncan Police Department and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Brooks has one or more convictions for burglary, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license, being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, driving while his license was canceled, suspended or revoked, and resisting arrest, court records show.