A 23-year-old Nebraska man has been sentenced to 121 months in federal prison after admitting he used ChatGPT to help plan a bank robbery in which he brandished a firearm.
Deron Lewis-Payne, of Omaha, was sentenced on August 13, 2026, after pleading guilty to bank robbery and to brandishing a Llama Mini-Max .45 handgun during the offence.
US Attorney Lesley A. Woods said District Court Judge Robert F. Rossiter Jr. handed down 37 months for the robbery and a further 84 months for brandishing the firearm, with the two terms to run consecutively. Lewis-Payne will serve five years of supervised release once freed; there is no parole in the federal system.
Court documents state that Lewis-Payne walked into i3Bank on Spaulding Street, Omaha, on February 10, 2026, pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at two tellers and threatened to kill them if they did not comply. He ordered them to empty their drawers without dye packs and escaped with about $9,175 in cash.
Surveillance cameras inside the bank captured his unmasked face, his gun and his red Nike slides, while a nearby residential camera picked up the getaway vehicle, including its number plate, a distinctive toolbox and rust spots. Investigators later tied him to a post-robbery shopping spree at Westroads Mall, where transaction records showed he spent stolen cash on shoes and clothing.
When police tracked him down, he fled and dropped banded cash behind him. A search of his residences turned up the vehicle, another currency band and most of the clothing seen in the footage, including the red slides.
Lewis-Payne initially admitted driving the car but denied involvement in the robbery. He later agreed to let investigators search his phone, which showed he had used ChatGPT during the planning stage — asking about police response times, how to strip and repair the handgun, and how to source ammunition despite being a convicted felon. His Google Maps history also showed recent searches for directions to the bank.
The gun was never recovered, but investigators retrieved $2,397 of the stolen money. The FBI investigated the case.
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