Cleveland man sentenced to 10 years for role in armed bank robbery

Justin E. Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today that Joseph Kyle Sanders, age 20, of Cleveland, was sentenced to 128 months imprisonment after being found guilty of armed bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to court documents filed for this case, on June 1, 2018, Sanders entered a Citizen’s Bank in Richmond Heights and threatened to shoot multiple bank employees in the head. Sanders produced a plastic bag and demanded the employees fill it with money. Approximately $14,000 was stolen from the bank.  Once the bag was filled, Sanders fled and ran through a parking lot when a dye pack exploded, causing him to drop the bag. An investigation revealed that Sanders and I’ziah Clark, age, 21, of Cleveland, worked together to aid and abet one another in order to execute the bank robbery.

I’ziah Clark previously plead guilty in this matter to one count of armed bank robbery and was sentenced to 68 months in prison in May 2020.

Sanders was found guilty of a similar offense committed on June 12, 2018, just twelve days after the Citizen’s Bank robbery. In that case, a firearm was also used in the commission of a robbery at a LoanMax in Cleveland Heights.

This case was investigated by the Cleveland Division of the FBI and the Richmond Heights Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Zarzycki and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katheryn Andrachik.