William J. Edwards, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that a Cleveland man, James W. Stewart, aka “Skip”, age 37, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 720 months (60 years) for his involvement in a bank robbery and the shooting of a bank employee in October, 2006. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Christopher A. Boyko after a jury, on June 12, 2008, found Stewart guilty in a seven-day trial of robbing the Charter One Bank at 365 East 200th Street in Euclid, and of using firearms in the commission of the robbery. Stewart had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit armed robbery in an earlier trial where the jury was unable to reach unanimous verdicts on the other charges.

The charges were the result of a year-long investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Euclid Police Department, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, and the full cooperation of the Charter One Bank’s Corporate Security Department. Evidence presented at trial disclosed that on the morning of October 13, 2006, Stewart carried a .12 gauge shotgun into the bank while two of his co-conspirators entered the bank brandishing handguns. All three of the robbers wore ski masks over their faces. As Stewart’s co-conspirators removed over $16,000.00 from the cash drawers of two bank tellers, Stewart stood guard with the shotgun near the bank’s rear entrance. A short time into the robbery, Stewart told assistant branch manager Gwen Washington, “I ain’t playin’ with you,” and fired the shotgun through a glass partition, striking Washington in the back of her head. Washington sustained serious but nonfatal injuries. The robbers made their getaway in a stolen van driven by a fourth co-conspirator. As the van was being driven away from the bank, Stewart attempted to justify the shooting by telling his fellow co-conspirators that Washington had been instructed not to move or to push the bank alarm.

The four co-conspirators were eventually identified and apprehended, with the arrests beginning in May, 2007. Stewart’s three co-conspirators subsequently pled guilty to charges stemming from the robbery and were sentenced earlier this year. Terence L. Moore, age 31, and Mario Fomby, age 37, each of whom brandished handguns during the robbery, were sentenced to terms of imprisonment totaling 211 months and 162 months respectively. Mark Scafe, who did not enter the bank but drove the getaway car, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 60 months following his guilty plea to a conspiracy charge.

Mr. Edwards praised the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation for their diligence and dedication, and stated that the convictions were the result of “outstanding police work.” Mr. Edwards also thanked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the Lake County Crime Laboratory, whose experts performed scientific testing in the case.