The three men accused of carrying out the Nov. 17, 2022, armed bank robbery of the Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury entered not-guilty pleas during a Massachusetts district court arraignment Friday.
Last week, Miquel Jones, 39, of Edgartown, and Omar Johnson, 32 of Canterbury, N.H., were indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on one count each of armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting. Romane Andre Clayton, 21, of Jamaica, was indicted on one count of being an accessory after the fact to armed bank robbery.
The defendants consented to proceeding by video.
Jones and Johnson remained in custody; Clayton was released earlier, with conditions.
According to the charging documents, on the morning of Nov. 17, three masked and armed individuals forced their way into the rear door of the Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury. All three were wearing dark-colored clothing and white masks resembling an elderly man with exaggerated facial features.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachel Rollins reported in a press release that the individuals were allegedly carrying what appeared to be semiautomatic handguns. The suspects allegedly entered the vault and took approximately $39,100, before binding bank employees with duct tape and plastic zip-ties.
The charge of armed bank robbery provides for a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of being an accessory after the fact to armed bank robbery provides for a sentence of up to 150 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
The suspects entered a novel plea. The bank was an ”attractive nuisance” in that there was money in there and it had a seductive intent to them.
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