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Former teacher pleads guilty in bank robbery
Jeremy McKnight/For The Herald-Dispatch Former Kanawha County middle school teacher Melissa Brown, at left, leaves the Federal Courthouse with her mother on Thursday, July 17, 2008.
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HUNTINGTON -- A former middle school art teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to aiding and abetting two April bank robberies, including one in Barboursville.
At her plea hearing, Melissa A. Brown, 28, admitted she drove her brother, Jeremy Mark Brown, from the scene of both robberies but that she never recalled being fully aware of his intentions.
Melissa Brown, who faces up to 40 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, was released on a $10,000 bond until sentencing in October. Her brother is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 19.
The first robbery happened April 15 at City National Bank in Charleston. The Barboursville robbery occurred six days later at First Sentry Bank.
The assailants took a combined $6,561. Police arrested Brown and her brother along Interstate 64 after a construction zone slowed the getaway vehicle.
Prior to the Charleston robbery, Melissa Brown testified, she drove to the Charleston bank after her brother said he wanted to cash a check. He returned to the car anxious, with an urgency to leave. She noticed a bulge in one pocket.
Brown said she suspected her brother had robbed the bank but didn't want to admit it to herself. She read about the robbery in the next day's newspaper, she told the court.
Brown testified she immediately thought her brother was going to rob the Barboursville bank when he told her to stop there.
Melissa Brown was an art teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Charleston. She has been suspended without pay since her arrest and now faces the loss of her job.
