Bank robbery ‘lookout man’ sentenced to four years

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A surveillance photo of one of the suspects - MV Times

A suspect in the armed-bank robbery on Martha’s Vineyard in 2022, what prosecutors are calling the “lookout man,” was sentenced yesterday in federal court to four years in prison. 

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young issued the sentence to Romane Andre Clayton, 22, of New Haven on Wednesday at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston. The four years in prison are to be followed by three years of supervised release. 

Last year, Clayton pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting in the Rockland Trust Bank robbery case. He is second in the robbery to be sentenced. The supposed ringleader, Miquel Jones, who is Clayton’s brother-in-law, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December.

Two others — Omar Johnson and Tevin Porter — have also pleaded guilty for their involvement and are awaiting sentencing.

According to the United States Attorney Leah B. Foley for the District of Massachusetts,  Clayton met the three others on the Vineyard on Nov. 16, 2022. The prosecutor said that Jones identified the bank they would be robbing and provided the others with dark-colored clothing and plastic masks that resembled an elderly man with exaggerated facial features. 

On the morning of Nov. 17, 2022, the U.S. attorney’s office said that the group drove to the area of the Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury. Porter, Jones and Johnson hid in bushes near the rear of the bank, while Clayton drove their car to the Manuel Correllus State Forest. Clayton, according to a release from the attorney’s office, then rode a bicycle back to the bank, where he stood outside to serve as a lookout during the robbery. Clayton had a walkie talkie to communicate with the others inside the bank, the prosecutor said.

As the bank’s three employees arrived that morning, Jones, Johnson, and Porter, wearing masks and with two handguns, approached them and forced their way through the rear door, the prosecutors said. The U.S. attorney’s office said that once inside the bank, one of the individuals held a gun to the head of one of the bank employees, forced them to open the bank’s vault, and took approximately $39,100. The bank employees were bound with duct tape and plastic zip ties, and the defendants demanded access to one of their vehicles. 

The U.S. attorney’s office stated that Jones, Porter, and Johnson then left the bank in an employee’s car, picked up Clayton outside the building, and drove to the Manuel Correllus State Forest, where they abandoned the vehicle in a parking lot before fleeing in another vehicle that Clayton had left there.

Johnson and Porter are expected to be sentenced next month.