A Talala man has been sentenced to three life terms in prison after he was found guilty of robbing three Oklahoma banks.
The Tulsa World reports a jury convicted 58-year-old Jesse Bud Leaverton on Sept. 20 on charges related to the June armed robberies of two Tulsa banks and one Fairfax bank.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell ordered the mandatory terms for Leaverton, noting federal law left him no leeway.
The federal three-strikes law imposes a mandatory life sentence if the person is convicted of a serious violent felony and has two or more prior serious violent felony convictions in federal or state court.
Leaverton was convicted in Tulsa County of first-degree manslaughter in 1984 and by a Missouri federal court in 1993 for charges involving an armed bank