Oklahoma City Bank Bomb Plot: Suspect Set Up By FBI, Family Says

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — The FBI gave a van loaded with fake explosives to a paranoid schizophrenic charged with trying to blow up an Oklahoma City bank, the suspect's family said.

Clifford and Melonie Varnell, of Sayre, Oklahoma, issued a statement late Tuesday questioning the tactics undercover federal agents used to arrest Jerry Drake Varnell. Varnell was detained over the weekend in the alleged plot to detonate a vehicle bomb in an alley nex to BancFirst in downtown Oklahoma City.

Varnell, 23, lives with his mother and stepfather in Sayre, about 130 miles west of Oklahoma City. He is unemployed due to his mental illness and does not have the resources to carry out such an act alone, the family said. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

"The FBI came and picked him up from our home, they gave him a vehicle, gave him a fake bomb, and every means to make this happen," the statement said, adding that authorities "should not have aided and abetted a paranoid schizophrenic to commit this act."

FBI spokeswoman Jessica Rice in Oklahoma City and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Williams declined comment Wednesday.

A federal detention hearing for Varnell is scheduled on Aug. 22. If convicted of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce, Varnell could receive five to 20 years in prison.

His court-appointed defense attorney, Terri Coulter of Oklahoma City, declined comment.

Varnell "has suffered through countless serious full-blown schizophrenic delusional episodes and he has been put in numerous mental hospitals since he was 16 years old," the family's statement said. It added that his parents are his legal guardians and do all they can "to keep him safe and functional."

"The mental health system has consistently failed us due to the lack of establishments and health care coverage for a person like him," the statement said. Varnell takes medication "but he will never be completely functional in life," it said.

The Varnells say their son is easily influenced and they believe a confidential informant who tipped FBI agents off to the alleged plot may have helped inspire it.

By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press

Photo credit: Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP