Bank killer pleads not guilty, feds press for death penalty

Brailen Weaver, 18, has pleaded not guilty to three counts against him in an armed bank robbery where he killed two bank employees last month. A trial date has been set for July 28.

After hearing more than three hours of testimony last week, a federal grand jury in Lexington indicted Weaver on multiple counts. The first count, attempted armed bank robbery that resulted in the death of two victims is punishable with life in prison. Weaver was also indicted on two counts of causing death with a firearm in the course of a crime of violence. Because the grand jury found that Weaver premeditated the killings, federal prosecutors are eligible to seek the death penalty against Weaver.

Following Weaver's arraignment, Magistrate Judge Matthew Stinnett granted a motion to federal prosecutors allowing them enough time before Weaver's trial to ask the US General Attorney's office in Washington for permission to seek the death penalty against Weaver. Weaver's attorneys, meanwhile, will file any mitigating evidence on Weaver's behalf, with the Attorney General.

For federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in an armed bank robbery case is rare, according to Gabrielle Dudgeon, spokesperson for the US District Attorney's office of Eastern Kentucky. That's because even though bank robberies might bring the threat of violence, the actual death rate in armed bank crimes is less than 1%, according to federal data.

"The FBI handles any kind of armed robbery. And since this one was so horrendous, this is something that we are interested in," Dudgeon told The Edge in a phone interview.

Stinnett, who as magistrate judge does not hear criminal trials, has referred the case to US District Judge Clara Horn Boom, who Dudgeon said will likely reschedule the trial, in part to accommodate the decision from the US Attorney General's office.

A spokesperson for Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman's office told The Edge in a phone interview that the state also plans to seek first degree murder charges against Weaver.

The FBI criminal complaint against Weaver reports that shortly before 2pm on Thursday, April 30, the assailant entered the US Bank branch on Chestnut Street in Berea, shot bank employees Breanna Edwards and Brian Switzer, and left on foot with about $700 in cash. Authorities apprehended Weaver early in the morning of May 1, after a high speed car chase that ended in northern Fayette County soon after he crashed the silver BMW he was driving.