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Stephan Byrd, 46, of Vineland will have to serve just about all of the sentence – meaning he’d have to live at least to 90 before he could again see freedom – because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Rejecting a deal from the government, Byrd went to trial and was convicted in federal court in Camden in April 2019.
It began in June 2014, when Byrd robbed the Ocean City Home Bank in Mays Landing of $5,576 after pointing a gun at tellers and warning them not to trigger any alarms, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
The following month, an accomplice stood lookout while Byrd hopped the counter at the Newfield National Bank in Vineland, pointed a gun at employees and took $10,297, Honig said.
The money had dye packs that exploded as Byrd and Charles Sanders escaped, she said, adding that Sanders later pleaded guilty to his role in the holdup.
Less than a week after that robbery, Byrd entered the Newfield National Bank in Malaga “armed with a gun and covered up from head to toe,” Honig said.
Once again, he vaulted the counter and pointed a gun at tellers, the U.S. attorney said. He fled with $6,139, she said.
Byrd fled into the woods, firing a shot at a customer who tried to follow him, Honig said. The customer wasn’t injured.
In addition to the 548-month federal prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Robert B. Kugler sentenced Byrd on Tuesday to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution.
Honig credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Field Office and police from Vineland and Hamilton Township with the investigation leading to Byrd’s conviction and sentence, secured by Senior Trial Counsel Jason Richardson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara A. Aliabadi of her Criminal Division in Camden.
She also thanked North Brunswick police, FBI agents from the Philadelphia office and analysts at the New Jersey State Police Forensic Sciences and Ballistics Laboratory for their assistance.
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