JACKSONVILLE, Ark. (KATV) — A Jacksonville man with a prior federal bank robbery conviction has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for robbing a First Arkansas Bank & Trust branch in 2025.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas announced that Bob Pilletto Best, 60, was sentenced Thursday by Chief U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker to 240 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of bank robbery.
In addition to the prison sentence, Baker ordered Best to serve three years of supervised release and pay $5,300 in restitution to First Arkansas Bank & Trust. There is no parole in the federal prison system.
A federal grand jury indicted Best on April 1, 2025. He pleaded guilty Jan. 8, 2026.
According to prosecutors, Jacksonville police responded to First Arkansas Bank & Trust on Feb. 6, 2025, after receiving a report of a bank robbery.
Investigators said Best entered the bank, appeared to be looking for something to write with and was told by a teller that the bank no longer used paper deposit slips. He then approached the teller with one hand tucked under his arm, claimed he had a firearm and demanded all the $50 and $100 bills from the cash drawer.
The teller handed over $5,300 before Best ran from the bank.
Police searched the area but did not find him that day. On Feb. 7, 2025, officers received information that Best was at an apartment in Little Rock. When officers arrived, Best answered the door and said, “I was the one who robbed the bank,” according to prosecutors. Authorities said he later repeated the admission during an interview.
Best previously was convicted of bank robbery in Michigan in 2005 and was sentenced to 170 months in federal prison. Court records also show felony convictions for armed robbery, assault on a prison employee, second-degree forgery, forgery and theft by receiving.
The FBI and the Jacksonville Police Department investigated the case.