Nacoe Ray Brown, Bank Robbery, Florida 2023

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — A film producer has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for bank robbery and violating the terms of his supervised release.

Nacoe Ray Brown, 55, was sentenced to 8 years for the robbery offense and 2 years consecutive for violating the terms of his supervised release related to his previous convictions for bank robbery in the District of Maryland.

Brown, a Baltimore, Maryland native, had pleaded guilty on January 4, 2023, to the charges.

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 released early on compassionate release grounds based upon concerns over the pandemic.

Brown then began serving his term of supervised release under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office in Baltimore.

However, 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.

A witness watched Brown flee the bank and enter a nearby gas station where he had staged a change of clothes. The witness reported this to the Belle Isle Police Department, who quickly responded and located Brown at the 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.

After he was arrested, Brown 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 was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael P. Felicetta.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

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