WARREN Bank robber pleads guilty, gets 15 years

The father of five children asked the judge to cut five years off his sentence.
WARREN -- A 27-year-old city man convicted of robbing the Seven Seventeen Credit Union in Hubbard Township of several thousand dollars has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Moments after Eric Rivers pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of aggravated robbery and four counts kidnapping, he was sentenced by Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The father of five children asked the judge to sentence him to 10 years instead of 15, but the judge refused.
Tate and three others were charged with robbing the credit union Feb. 4, 2002.
Valdeoss Bender and Kenneth Tyler, both of Warren, pleaded guilty in September to one count each of aggravated robbery and four counts of kidnapping. Each was sentenced to 15 years.
Donald Tate, also of Warren, was convicted in May of one count of aggravated robbery and four counts kidnapping. He got 12 years.
The men entered the credit union shortly before 9:30 a.m. Township police captured them after a 45-minute chase.
About five weeks after the robbery, police found the stolen $13,000 in Warren.