Warren man gets prison for 2002 robbery

WARREN -- A 39-year-old Warren man convicted of robbing the Seven Seventeen Credit Union in Hubbard Township of several thousand dollars has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Donald Tate on Wednesday. He was convicted in May of charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Tate told the judge he didn't want to take part in the robbery but was forced to by the co-defendants in the case.
Judge McKay ordered deputies to transport Tate to Lorain Correctional Institution as soon as possible so he can begin serving his sentence.
Diane Barber, an assistant county prosecutor, said Tate and three others were charged with robbing the credit union Feb. 4, 2002.
Pleaded guilty
Valdeoss Bender and Kenneth Tyler, both of Warren, pleaded guilty in September for their part in the robbery. Each was charged with one count of aggravated robbery and four counts of kidnapping. Each was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Eric Rivers, 27, of Warren, is facing the same charges as Bender and Tyler. His case is pending.
Hubbard Township police said three men -- two of them armed -- entered the credit union shortly before 9:30 a.m. and took cash. Township police captured them after a 45-minute chase through a Howland neighborhood.
About five weeks after the robbery, police found the money -- $13,000 -- in the 8400 block of Huntley Drive Southeast.