Third suspect arrested in Martha's Vineyard armed bank robbery
BOSTON - A third man has been arrested and charged in connection with an armed bank robbery on Martha's Vineyard last month.
Federal prosecutors said 21-year-old Romane Andre Clayton of Jamaica was arrested on Friday in Connecticut. He is charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to armed bank robbery.
Two other suspects, Miquel Antonio Jones, 39, of Edgartown, and Omar Odion Johnson, 32 of Canterbury, N.H., were previously arrested and charged with one count of armed bank robbery. They remain in state custody.
On November 17, investigators said three robbers, wearing masks and carrying semi-automatic handguns, and walkie-talkies, walked into the Rockland Trust bank in Tisbury.
One of the suspects held a bank employee at gunpoint, forcing them to unlock the vault. They took about $39,100 in cash, prosecutors said, before tying employees up and taking off in an employee's car. The stolen car was found in a parking lot approximately 2 miles from the bank. The suspects allegedly left the parking lot in another vehicle.
Prosecutors said surveillance video from the Steamship Authority terminal in Vineyard Haven shows Clayton arriving in a silver sedan less than 40 minutes after the robbery. He was allegedly seen parking the vehicle, purchasing tickets and boarding a ferry.
Less than 30 minutes later, Johnson is allegedly captured on surveillance video arriving to the same parking lot and getting into the driver's seat of the car Clayton arrived in earlier. Johnson then allegedly boarded a freight ferry in the silver sedan about two and a half hours later.
During the investigation, police said they found paperwork reflecting a money transfer to Jamaica and large deposits into other bank accounts. Officers also searched a Tisbury farm and found paper money, zip ties, as well as burned debris that is believed to be the masks and walkie-talkies used during the robbery.
A further search found two semi-automatic guns buried inches under the ground.
Clayton will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date. He faces up to 150 months in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
