LITTLE ROCK — A former Little Rock police officer convicted of scheming to rob an armored car company was sentenced Monday to 3 1/2 years in prison, a year-and-a-half less than the minimum recommended by federal guidelines.
Jason Gilbert was among three people, including a former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs police officer, who were convicted in plots to rob armored cars after atrial in December and who were sentenced to prison terms on Monday.
In addition, Sterling Omar Platt, a former University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences police officer who pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and testified against the other men, was sentenced on Monday to two years of probation.
Gilbert, wearing a blue jail uniform as he addressed U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes in court on Monday, maintained his innocence, saying he’s been in “disbelief” since he was convicted.
“I did not conspire, scheme, plot, plan to rob anything,” Gilbert said. “That’s not my character at all.”
He also told Holmes that he had never been accused of stealing anything during his more than seven years as a Little Rock officer.
That prompted Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon to call a Little Rock police official to testify about an internal investigation into a theft by receiving charge Gilbert faced in connection with a GMC Yukon that had been reported stolen and was later found near Gilbert’s Little Rock apartment.
Noting the contradiction, Holmes said Gilbert “stood up here a few moments ago and told me something that was not true.”
But Holmes also said he took into account Gilbert’s service with the department and otherwise clean criminal history in deciding on a sentence.
The federal guidelines, which take into account the defendant’s criminal history and the nature of the crime, recommended a sentence of five years and 10 months to seven years and three months.
At the trial in December, jurors convicted Gilbert, Anthony Person and former Veterans Affairs officer Allen Clark of participating in a scheme to rob the Arkansas Armored Car Service that culminated in a September 2007 robbery at the US Bank branch in downtown North Little Rock. The heist netted $400,000, which police later recovered.
The scheme’s initial mastermind was Quintus Williams, who had been a Little Rock police cadet with Gilbert and who had worked for the armored car company.
During an unsuccessful Sept. 23, 2005, attempt to rob the company’s main offices in Little Rock, Williams and other witnesses testified, Gilbert monitored his police radio, ready to alert the robbers of any trouble.
Williams testified that the plan was for Mark Davis and Platt to rush at a guard as he arrived for work at 3:50 a.m.
Gilbert was then to have backed his GMC Yukon Denali up to the business so that the robbers could load it with money.
The plan failed when Davis dropped his gun and then fled along with Platt. Davis pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery but has not yet been sentenced.
Williams, who was granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation, testified that he eventually gave up on robbing the business and moved to Texas, but that Person and Gilbert remained interested in the idea and called him a few times, asking for information about security procedures and delivery times.
Holmes said Monday that there was little evidence connecting Gilbert to the Sept. 10, 2007, robbery in North Little Rock, but he said it was clear Gilbert had participated in the 2005 robbery attempt and that he recruited Person, whose wife is Gilbert’s aunt.
“As a police officer, he had an obligation to respect the law, and he did not,” Holmes said.
Testifying on Gilbert’s behalf on Monday, police Lt. Glenn King noted that Gilbert is a third-generation police officer and had regularly helped out with the department’s youth summer camp.
Gilbert’s mother, Evelyn,also asked for mercy, describing her son as the loving father of two young daughters.
In response Gordon, presented testimony from FBI agent Al Land, who said Williams told him he and Gilbert stole police radios while they were cadets and sold them to drug dealers and others.
Land also testified that a man serving time for drug charges had written the FBI to say that Gilbert was often present, sometimes with his marked patrol car nearby, while drug deals took place at a duplex in Little Rock. The inmate said the dealer told him, “don’t worry, that’s my cousin, Jason,” Land testified.
Another federal inmate said in a letter that he had seen a marked patrol car at the scene of drug deals at a Little Rock liquor store, and that the same dealer told him, “Don’t worry, that’s my boy,” Land testified.
Gilbert’s attorney, Jason Files of Little Rock, said the inmates and Williams shouldn’t be believed, and he questioned why the inmates wouldn’t have come forward with such information before Gilbert was indicted on the federal conspiracy charge. Holmes said he didn’t attach much weight to the testimony.
The theft by receiving and forgery charges, along with a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, were filed in October 2010. According to an arrest affidavit, Gilbert had forfeited the Denali in May 2009 after failing to keep up with his payments to Compass Bank.
He told Little Rock detectives the vehicle came back into his possession through his uncle, a car dealer, and that Gilbert assumed it belonged to him because his wages were still being garnisheed.
Prosecutors dropped the charges on Jan. 12, citing Gilbert’s conviction in federal court.
Gilbert was also arrested by the Arkansas State Police on Oct. 23, 2010, after a traffic stop on Interstate 430, near Maumelle. He was fired in January 2011 after an internal investigation into the drunken driving arrest and the theft by receiving charges.
Also on Monday, Person, who was convicted of carrying out the robbery in North Little Rock, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Clark, who was accused of acting as a lookout during the 2005 robbery attempt, was sentenced to 18 months.
Like Gilbert’s, both of the sentences were below the amount recommended by federal guidelines. Holmes said he took into account testimony that the men had been active in their churches and providers for their families and had no other serious criminal convictions.
Attorneys for Gilbert, Person and Clark said they plan to appeal their clients’ convictions.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/27/2012