Serial Bank Robber Sentenced To 25 Years In Federal Prison

Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton today sentenced Timothy Jones, (60, Orlando) to 25 years in federal prison for bank robbery. The court also ordered Jones to forfeit $30,000 of unrecovered proceeds from his robberies. Jones pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery on September 26, 2023. 

According to court documents, on June 1, 2022, Jones was released from Putnam County Correctional Facility after having served an eight-year term of incarceration for committing a bank robbery of a Wells Fargo bank located on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. On the morning of June 2, 2022, Jones walked into a Truist Bank on that same street in Orlando, met with an employee in an office, and announced that it was a robbery. Jones told the employee that he had a gun and would shoot everyone in the bank if they did not give him $150,000 and told the employee that there would be a “bloodbath” if he did not get what he wanted. After employees provided $30,000, Jones took the keys to an employee’s car and escaped.

Seven days later, on June 9, 2022, Jones entered a SouthState bank in Kissimmee. He walked into an office with an employee and announced it was a robbery and that he had a gun. Jones told the employee he did not want any “funny business” and demanded $50,000 that they then provided. He again took the keys to an employee’s car and escaped in that car. Later that afternoon, Jones was apprehended near the employee’s car with $1,815 in cash and $47,200 in the vehicle.

After being arrested and detained on state and then federal charges, Jones claimed to be mentally incompetent and unable to stand trial. In May 2023, Jones wrote handwritten letter to a relative and attempted to conceal it from law enforcement by marking it as though he was communicating to an attorney. In the letter to his relative, Jones explained that he was pretending to be incompetent in order to “manipulate,” “trick,” and “fool” doctors and the court system into showing him leniency and reducing his sentence. Jones had been convicted of robbery charges in 1995, 2006, and 2013 and had spent almost all of the past 18 years incarcerated for robbery charges. Jones was sentenced as a career offender.   

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Kissimmee Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dana E. Hill.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.