Bank robbery trial slated for December

Federal Judge William Young has set a trial date in the Rockland Trust bank robbery for Dec. 4, 2023.

Judge Young made the decision during a brief video conference with attorneys in the case on Monday, May 8.

Andre Clayton, Tevin Porter, and Miquel Anthonio Jones will be on trial on various charges relating to the November 2022 robbery, including conspiracy to commit an armed bank robbery. Clayton is facing a charge of accessory after the fact of an armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting.

Forty-year-old Omar Johnson entered a plea agreement last week.

Prosecutors say that Porter, Jones, and Johnson forced their way through the rear door of the Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury during the November robbery. The men were allegedly armed with at least two semi-automatic handguns and wearing dark colored clothing and white masks that resembled an elderly man with exaggerated facial features. Once inside the bank, one of the individuals allegedly held a gun to the head of one of the bank employees, forced that employee to open the bank’s vault and took approximately $39,100.

It is alleged that the bank employees were bound with duct tape and plastic zip ties while their belongings were searched and the robbers demanded access to one of their vehicles. 

The charging documents further allege that Jones, Porter, and Johnson then left the bank premises in an employee’s car and drove to the Manuel Correllus State Forest, where they abandoned the vehicle in a parking lot and fled in another vehicle that had been left there for purposes of their escape. It is also alleged that Porter and Clayton then left Martha’s Vineyard together on a ferry later that morning.

A final, pre-trial conference in the case will be held on Nov. 6, 2023.