‘Lookout’ during bank robbery headed to prison
NORRISTOWN » A 21-year-old Norristown man learned he’s headed to state prison for participating as “the lookout” during the robbery of a Plymouth Township bank.
Keyan Lee “Glizzy” Johnson, of the 400 block of East Fornance Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to five to 10 years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the 2:52 p.m. Sept. 3, 2016, holdup of the TD Bank branch along the 500 block of West Germantown Pike.
“I get no pleasure sentencing you at this young age to five to 10 years in jail,” county Judge Gary S. Silow addressed a repentant Johnson. “I hope you’ll come out of jail a better person. Good luck to you.”
Johnson was one of three men charged in connection with the armed holdup.
Tyrie King, 29, of Philadelphia, the man who brandished the gun during the robbery, previously was sentenced to 12 to 26 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to robbery- and weapons-related charges.
Tyson Sheaff, 29, of the 500 block of Green Street, Norristown, the getaway driver during the robbery, previously pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy charges and remains in jail while awaiting sentencing.
County Assistant District Attorney Scott Frame sought prison time against Johnson.
“He definitely wasn’t the ringleader. He was the second in command. He was in the bank while the ringleader was asking for 60 hundred dollar bills. He was basically standing there as a lookout inside the bank,” said Frame, explaining Johnson’s role in the holdup.
Defense lawyer Joshua Marc Rudolph said Johnson is remorseful for his conduct and regrets his actions. Rudolph said while Johnson did enter the bank with King he was not the person who brandished a gun during the incident. Rudolph claimed Johnson didn’t know that a gun was going to be used during the holdup.
“As he stated in front of his honor, he kind of got caught up with the wrong crowd. Unfortunately, when you get caught up in things, bad things do happen. He knows it was a mistake,” said Rudolph. “The hope for him is that he learns from his mistake. He wants to put it behind him and try to move forward.”
Rudolph said Johnson cooperated with police when he was apprehended.
“He knew it was an enormous mistake,” Rudolph said.
An investigation began when Plymouth Township police responded to the bank for a report of an armed robbery.
The investigation revealed that King and Johnson entered the bank and approached separate tellers. King, according to the criminal complaint, handed a teller a demand note which read, “I NEED 60 1 HUNDRED $ BILLS ITS THREE OF US WITH GUNS.”
Johnson, detectives said, approached another teller and asked for change.
King then vaulted a counter and went to the drivethru area where three bank employees were located.
“(King) brandished a silver semi auto handgun and demanded money,” Plymouth detectives Jeffrey McGee and Joseph LaPenta III wrote in the arrest affidavit. “(King) pointed the handgun at the employees and ordered the male employee to the ground.”
King removed more than $2,000 from the two drivethru teller drawers as well as cash from a cash box while Johnson watched for police, detectives alleged.
As the robbers fled, a dye pack exploded and they left some of the cash behind.
The robbers were last seen entering a light colored Buick which pulled out from the Plymouth Meeting Executive Campus and headed north on Hickory Road, according to court documents.
Around 6 p.m. police received a tip that money with dye stains on it was found at a residence in the 500 block of East High Street in Philadelphia. The tipster also reported that Sheaff and two other men had been at the residence counting money.
Sheaff subsequently provided a written statement admitting to his role as the getaway driver and reportedly told detectives he and his accomplices went to the Philadelphia home of his relative to clean up after the robbery. Police arrested King at the Motel 6 on West DeKalb Pike in Upper Merion on Sept. 4.
King subsequently confessed to the robbery, admitting the gun he used was a silver .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol with a brown grip, which he discarded in a body of water after the robbery.
Johnson was taken into custody several days after the robbery after investigators received another tip. Using the information provided by the tipster, Johnson’s photo was included in a photo array, and positively identified by a bank employee.
Johnson also pleaded guilty to a charge of person not to possess a firearm in connection with allegations that he illegally possessed a firearm at the time of his arrest. However, that weapon had not been used during the robbery, authorities said.