2 Men Convicted of 4 Murders During Oklahoma Bank Holdup

A jury on Friday convicted two men of murdering four persons and wounding three others during the robbery of a small-town bank branch last December.

Jay Wesley Neill, 19, and Robert Grady Johnson, 22, each were found guilty of four counts of murder, three of shooting with intent to kill and one of attempted shooting with intent to kill.

The charges stemmed from the Dec. 14 robbery of a bank in Geronimo, a farming community 10 miles from Lawton.

The District Court jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning the verdicts. Jurors agreed to sentence the two men to 80 years in prison each on the shooting charges and return to court today for a hearing on whether the men should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment for the murders.

Three bank employees and a customer were slain and three customers were wounded in the robbery of the First Bank of Chattanooga branch. A 14-month-old child in the bank that afternoon was not injured, although one of the robbers tried to shoot her.

Assistant Dist. Atty. John Landon told the jury in his summation that Johnson and Neill were in desperate financial shape. “Creditors were literally knocking at their door,” Landon said.

“There is no direct evidence putting defendant Johnson in the bank,” Landon told the jury as closing arguments in the two-week-old trial began. “But is there any possible other conclusion you can infer?”

Defense attorney Jay Walker took exception to the use of “infer” when he presented closing arguments on behalf of Johnson.

“Maybe Robbie was in the bathroom at that time,” Walker said. “Maybe he was hiding behind a counter. Maybe he was hiding in the vault. They don’t know where Robbie is supposed to be.”