Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison for Robbing Two Camden County Banks

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 151 months in prison for robbing two banks in Camden County, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.

Leon I. Stanford, 54, of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez to an information charging him with two counts of bank robbery. Judge Rodriguez imposed the sentence on Oct. 24, 2023, in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On Feb. 22, 2020, Stanford entered the TD Bank in Oaklyn, New Jersey, and handed the bank teller a note which announced a robbery and demanded cash. The bank teller complied, and witnesses saw him depart in a white SUV. On Feb. 24, 2020, Stanford entered the Republic Bank in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and handed the bank teller a note which announced a robbery and demanded cash. The bank teller complied, and witnesses saw Stanford depart in a white SUV.

Law enforcement officers were able to obtain a partial license plate number for the white SUV from surveillance videos in the area of both bank robberies, which generated a lead to a vehicle driven by Stanford, who was subsequently identified as the person in the bank surveillance videos. 

At the time of these bank robberies, Stanford was on federal supervised release as a result of prior bank robbery convictions, for which he served a 10-year term of imprisonment. 

In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Stanford to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Richard Langham in Philadelphia; the New York/New Jersey U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force Camden Division, under the direction of U.S. Marshal Juan Mattos Jr.; the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay; the Oaklyn Police Department, under the direction of Chief Jayne Jones; and the Cherry Hill Police Department, under the direction of Chief Robert Kempf, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen M. Harberg in Camden.