OXFORD, Miss. (WJTV) – On Tuesday, November 1, a Tupelo man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for a bank robbery.

United States District Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced Jasper Wagner, 57, to the maximum sentence of 20 years. In imposing the sentence, Aycock noted that Wagner had 10 prior convictions for bank robbery and that the sentence was necessary to deter him from similar future conduct.

According to court documents, Wagner entered the Community Bank located at 307 West Main Street in Tupelo on April 6, 2022, and presented a teller with a demand note which read: “Stay calm no alarms, no dye packs, turn your money machine on till I say stop – $100s 4 50s Keep your hands from under the counter.”

Upon realizing that the robber was serious, the teller noticed that she could not see the robber’s hands or determine whether he had a gun, and she gave him $5,000. The teller recognized the robber as a bank customer, and Wagner was subsequently identified from surveillance video released to the public.

Investigating officers tracked Wagner to a hotel in Leeds, Alabama, where they obtained a search warrant for his room on the day of the robbery and recovered $4,850 of the stolen money.

Court records indicate that Wagner had previously been convicted of multiple counts of bank robbery in 2001 and 2012.

The Tupelo Police and FBI investigated the case with significant assistance from the Leeds, Alabama Police Department who arrested Wagner the day of the bank robbery.