BOSTON — Three men were indicted by a Boston federal grand jury Thursday in connection with the November armed robbery of a bank on Martha’s Vineyard.
Miquel Antonio Jones, 39, of Edgartown, Omar Odion Johnson, 32 of Canterbury, N.H. and Romane Andre Clayton, 21, of Jamaica, are facing charges after allegedly holding a gun to an employee’s head and binding workers with duct tape as they made their getaway.
Jones and Johnson were indicted on one count each of armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting. Clayton was indicted on one count of being an accessory after the fact for armed robbery.
According to charging documents, the three masked and armed men forced their way into the rear door of the Rockland Trust bank in Tisbury on November 17. All three suspects were wearing dark-colored clothing and white masks resembling an elderly man with exaggerated facial features.
According to witnesses, each of the suspects was carrying a semi-automatic handgun and surveillance video shows at least one of the robbers had a walkie-talkie.
Once inside the bank, one of the suspects allegedly held a gun to the head of one of the bank employees and forced him to open the bank’s vault. The alleged robbers then entered the vault and took just over $39,000. The Department of Justice says the men then bound the employees with duct tape and plastic zip ties and stole one of the employee’s vehicles.
Responding authorities found the stolen car a short distance away from the bank and determined the men had switched to another vehicle.
Investigators found gloves, a paper money band, zip ties and multiple rubber bands on a farm where Jones worked. Police then found evidence of a recent fire and found pieces of burnt nylon, remnants of a white mask, burned walkie-talkies, an antenna, batteries and pieces of metal they believe to have been a duffle bag zipper. Two semi-automatic handguns were also found buried a short distance away.
The DOJ says surveillance video from the Steamship Authority ferry termianl captured Clayton arriving in a silver sedan before boarding a ferry on the same day of the robbery. Prosecutors then say Johnson arrived in the same parking lot, got behind the wheel of the silver sedan a few hours later and drove the car onto a freight ferry.
Jones and Johnson, were arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston on December 1. Clayton was arrested in Connecticut on December 9.
Jones, Johnson and Clayton will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
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. While 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.
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