Gary woman handed 25-year prison sentence for role in deadly bank robbery

GARY, Ind. — A Gary woman has been handed a 25-year prison sentence for her role in a deadly bank robbery in 2021.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Indiana, 29-year-old Briana White, who pleaded guilty to armed bank robbery and murder resulting from the discharge of a firearm during the robbery, was sentenced to 300 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

White’s convictions stem from her role in a robbery at a First Midwest Bank in Gary, Indiana, on June 11, 2021, during which the bank’s security guard, 55-year-old Richard Castellana, a Tinley Park resident, was fatally shot.

Castellana, who was ambushed outside the bank, was a retired Cook County deputy.

Prosecutors say White was involved in the planning of the robbery, facilitated a three-way phone call between her and two other co-defendants, and provided her counterparts with information on police response by listening to a police scanner during the robbery.

According to prosecutors, about $9,000 was taken during the robbery.

White is the last of four defendants to be sentenced in connection with the crime.

Back in April of 2023, White’s co-defendant, Hailey Gist-Holden, was handed two life sentences in connection with the deadly robbery.

At the time of his conviction, the government alleged that Gist-Holden had carried out the robbery in order to bail out his semi-pro football team, the Illini Panthers.

Two other defendants, James King and Kenyon Hawkins, were both convicted in connection with the deadly robbery.

White’s sentence was handed down by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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