(Ken Silva, Headline USA) WINSTON-SALEM—Greensboro woman Tina Brown Cooper was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Thursday for helping Ryan Routh obtain the rifle that he used in his September 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Cooper, 59, played a minor and unwitting role in Routh’s plot, according to courtroom statements from her, the Justice Department and Judge Thomas Schroeder.
In July 2024, Routh contacted Cooper about procuring a rifle. Routh told Cooper, who was his employee at his roofing business in the early 2000s, that the rifle was for his son, Oran Routh. Cooper did know that Routh was a felon who wasn’t allowed to possess firearms.
Cooper, who hadn’t spoken to Routh since 2022, declined to help him at first. But then she agreed to introduce him to her current boss, construction worker Ronnie Jay Oxendine.
When they all showed up to his business on Aug. 2, 2024, Oxendine was surprised to see Routh, whom he thought was living in Hawaii.
“I haven’t seen you since you tried to blow up the police station,” Oxendine told Routh—referring to a standoff he had with Greensboro police in the early 2000s (Routh had been caught with a stick of dynamite from a construction site, and Judge Schroeder said Thursday that the failed assassin’s threats against the police weren’t taken seriously).
Despite his surprise, Oxendine sold Routh an SKS-style rifle for $350 in cash. Cooper collected $100 for arranging the sale.
Later that day, Routh asked Cooper to inquire about the location of the rifle’s serial numbers so he could obliterate them.
Cooper and Oxendine were charged earlier this year. Cooper pled guilty to one count of firearms trafficking. Oxendine, who hasn’t been sentenced yet, also struck a deal to plead guilty for possessing an unregistered firearm (agents found a sawed-off shotgun at his business).
Before Judge Schroeder handed down his sentence, Cooper’s lawyer, Mark Edwards, asked for probation for his client.
Edwards recounted Cooper’s hardscrabble life, starting when she had her first child at the age of 16. Cooper still managed to graduate high school and accumulate a few community college credits before entering the construction business, where she typically cleaned up debris but also occasionally climbed on roofs to lay shingles.
Edwards argued that the negative attention his client has received due to Routh’s assassination plot is punishment enough.
“One thing that will follow her for the rest of her life is the involvement in this case. She is worried that the president’s supporters think she’s involved in the assassination plot,” he said.
However, DOJ prosecutor Eric Iverson argued that Cooper’s crime was more egregious than simply introducing Routh to the gun seller, Oxendine. Iverson noted that Cooper also sought to cover up her crime after she saw what Routh did in the news.
Iverson was referring to the fact that after Routh was arrested on Sept. 15, 2024, Cooper told Oxendine: “Do not admit to anything.” When Cooper was interviewed by FBI agents, she initially denied concealing her links to Routh until agents showed her the text messages from her phone.
These text messages show that Routh's co-conspirators were very worried after he tried killing Trump.
It doesn't appear they knew what Routh was planning. pic.twitter.com/b0gk82yVXx— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) July 8, 2025
Iverson said Cooper may have been used a witness against Routh if she was more forthright with the FBI from the beginning. Oxendine was used as a witness instead, and Routh was convicted of trying to kill Trump last month.
Cooper, for her part, said she deleted text messages from her phone because she was afraid of Routh’s “crazy wife” in Hawaii. She said she was worried the wife, Kathleen Shaffer, thought they might be having an affair.
Cooper further said that Routh owed her $3,000, and that he was supposed to pay her that money when he showed up for the gun deal. Instead, she received a measly $100, she said.
In any event, Judge Schroeder agreed with the DOJ’s request for a stiffer sentence. Along with the 21 months in jail, Cooper was fined $2,000.
Cooper was set to report to prison on Dec. 2, but she said that she was going to turn herself in that afternoon “to get this over with.”
Cooper’s sister wept outside the courtroom.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” the sister told Tina.
Oxendine is set to be sentenced on Oct. 23.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
