Bank robber given minimum-standard term

Wed., Sept. 28, 2005

From staff reports

A Spokane man who pleaded guilty to robbing a Bank of America branch was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins rejected Mason Jessiah Clevenger’s plea for a below-standard sentence. He pleaded guilty last month to the March 2004 robbery.

Clevenger’s plea bargain, in which a bomb-threat charge was dismissed, called for Deputy Prosecutor Teresa Border to recommend the 31-month minimum-standard sentence, and that’s what Tompkins imposed. She could have given the 20-year-old defendant 10 more months for the first-degree robbery.

Clevenger told tellers he had a bomb when he robbed the Bank of America branch at 3009 E. Olympic, but the only explosion came from the dye pack that painted Clevenger red soon after he fled the bank.

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