Bike-Riding Bank Robber Sent To Prison

A bank robber who got away on a mountain bike was sentenced Wed nesday to more than three years in prison.

Marc R. Michelson, 25, and co-defendant Travis A. Joy, 28, earlier admitted their involvement in hold-ups of two Spokane banks in March.

U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen ordered Michelson to serve 37 months in prison and make restitution to the banks.

If Michelson successfully completes a voluntary treatment program in prison, his sentence could be reduced by six months, the judge told him.

Joy is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 28.

The two Spokane men were arrested by FBI agents on May 16, a day after a bank robbery surveillance photo was published in The Spokesman-Review.

They were arrested at 19122 E. Valleyway, where Joy lived.

A Valley man who read the newspaper recognized the robbers and called the FBI.

After their arrests, Michelson and Joy admitted robbing Washington Trust Bank, 611 E. 31st, on March 5.

They also confessed to holding up a Sterling Savings branch at 103 E. Queen, on March 9. The robbers fled on mountain bikes, abandoning them a short distance from the bank.

They escaped with $14,828 in the first robbery, and $4,371 in the second. Both times, they told tellers they were armed, but displayed no guns.

“I know what I did was the wrong thing to do,” Michelson told the judge.

His court-appointed attorney, Michelle Solinsky, asked the judge to sentence Michelson to less than the standard sentencing range of between 37 and 46 months.

Any sentence outside of the sentencing range would be automatically reviewed by an appeals court.

The defense attorney called the robberies “aberrant behavior” because Michelson had no criminal record. He robbed the banks because of a drug habit and financial problems, she said.

The judge said everyone displays aberrant behavior when they commit their first serious crime.

, DataTimes