December 15, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
A federal appeals court has rejected a Sayre man’s claim that the FBI manipulated him into trying to blow up a bank in downtown Oklahoma City.
27-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell is currently serving 25 years in federal prison for attempting to detonate a fake 1,000-pound bomb outside BancFirst headquarters in 2017.
His attorneys had asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the diagnosed schizophrenic’s conviction.
In an opinion Monday, a 10th Circuit three-judge panel affirmed Varnell’s conviction and sentence.
The judges did agreed with Varnell’s defense attorney that “the FBI’s investigation in this matter was aggressive and its participation in constructing the bomb and choosing a target was extensive.”
However, one judge wrote that Varnell made deeply troubling statements to a friend before the FBI became involved and then voluntarily engaged in serious criminal conduct during the course of the investigation.
The judge also wrote that Varnell drove the van containing the inert bomb to the BancFirst building, circled the building until a security vehicle left the alleyway, and then attempted to detonate the bomb three times.
Varnell was convicted at a federal jury trial in 2019 of attempting to destroy property used in interstate commerce and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
A judge chose his punishment last year.
Varnell came under investigation after the friend reported his statements to the FBI about setting off bombs to start a revolution.
The friend became a paid FBI informant and introduced Varnell to an undercover FBI agent.
In one meeting about potential targets, Varnell told the undercover agent he wanted to do something like the ending of the movie “Fight Club,” according to testimony at the trial.
Prosecutors told the appeals court that FBI agents would have been remiss in their duties if they had not tested how far Varnell would go to carry out his desires.
Varnell parked the van about 12:40 a.m. Aug. 12, 2017. Then, from several miles away, dialed a number on a cellphone, believing that would set the bomb off. He tried two more times before being arrested.
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