Convicted Bank Robber From PA Admits Holding Up Two NJ Banks in Three Days

Leon I. Stanford, 54, of Wilkes Barre handed tellers notes demanding money at both the TD Bank in Oaklyn on Feb. 22, 2020 and at the Republic Bank in Cherry Hill on Feb. 24, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.

Witnesses at the banks in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill described seeing the robber flee the area in the same white Saturn van used in both holdups, the U.S. attorney said on March 14.

Surveillance cameras captured partial license-plate characters that helped investigators identify him as the robber, Sellinger said.

A background check turned up guilty-plea convictions in 2010 for robbing a Citizens Bank of $4,090 and a Choice One Federal Credit Union of $920 – also over a span of three days -- in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Stanford was arrested soon after by members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force’s Camden Division.

Stanford, who originally hails from the Atlantic City area, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in exchange for his pleas. He was out after eight under supervised release, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records.

U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez scheduled sentencing on the latest convictions for July 18.

Sellinger, meanwhile, credited special agents of the FBI in Philadelphia, members of the New York/New Jersey U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force Camden Division, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and police in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill for the investigation leading to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen M. Harberg.

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