WARREN Credit union robber gets 15-year sentence

The defendant admitted his involvement in the February bank robbery of the Seven Seventeen Credit Union in Hubbard Township.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 31-year-old Tod Avenue man pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay sentenced Kenneth Tyler on Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Tyler admitted his involvement in the February robbery of Seven Seventeen Credit Union in Hubbard Township.
Tyler declined to comment afterward.
Police said Tyler and three others robbed the credit union Feb. 4.
One co-defendant, Valdeoss Bender of Warren, pleaded guilty last week to one charge of aggravated robbery, four counts of kidnapping and one count of illegal possession of a weapon. Bender also was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Other defendants
Two other co-defendants -- Eric Rivers, 27, of Tod Avenue, Warren, and Donald J. Tate, 38, of Warren -- are awaiting trial.
Hubbard Township police said three men, two of them armed, entered the credit union shortly before 9:30 a.m. Feb. 4 and took cash. Police say Tyler was one of the three. One man stayed in the car as the getaway driver.
After robbing the credit union, the men fled in a blue Lincoln Town Car. Hubbard Township police spotted the car and began chasing it. The driver led police on a 45-minute chase that ended in a Howland Township neighborhood.
Police said the men threw the stolen money out of the car.
Police searched for the money but did not find it. About five weeks later, police received a tip that the money was near a shed on Huntley Drive S.E. in Howland. Police who recovered the money said the homeowners did not know the money was there.
sinkovich@vindy.com