Berks County Man Sentenced to Five Years for 2019 Lancaster-Area Armed Bank Robbery

PHILADELPHIA – Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Richard Garland Jones, 24, of Reading, PA, was sentenced to five years in prison, five years of supervised release by United States District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson, Jr., for committing an armed bank robbery in April 2019.

In March 2021, the defendant pleaded guilty to an Indictment charging him with the gunpoint robbery of a bank on Oregon Pike in Brownstown, PA, stealing approximately $117,000. Jones was the gunman during the robbery, and another defendant (who also pleaded guilty) was the getaway driver. Jones fled the bank and jumped into the getaway car.  The police pursued the robbers and apprehended them after they lost control and crashed the vehicle. Police officers found Jones in possession of the $117,000 in cash and other evidence, including the pellet gun that he used during the robbery.

“This may not be common knowledge so it bears repeating: robbing a bank – armed or not – is a serious federal crime which will result in a significant prison sentence for everyone involved,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Williams. “In this case, the defendants may have been after easy money, but Jones is now losing years of his life to a federal prison sentence.  It is not worth it.”

The case was investigated by the West Earl Township Police Department, the Akron Borough Police Department, the East Cocalico Township Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas M. Zaleski.