After deliberating into the evening of Thursday, Feb. 8, a jury recommended Ronald Michael Young, 35, serve 40 years for his involvement in two bank robberies that occurred March 30 of last year. Earlier that day the jury found Young guilty of robbery and conspiracy to commit a felony for the robberies of banks in Ashburn and Sterling that occurred only hours apart. The jury recommended 15 years for each of the robberies and five years for each of the conspiracy charges.
The jury could have recommended any sentence between five years and life in prison for each of the two robbery convictions, Commonwealth’s Attorney James Plowman said.
YOUNG, WHO IS from Manassas, and Geoffrey Logan Rogers, 42, of Kentucky, were charged with a series of robberies in Loudoun and Fairfax counties beginning in Fairfax on March 17, 2006. The two Loudoun robberies, at the BB&T bank in Ashburn’s Junction Plaza and the Provident bank in Sterling’s Commonwealth Plaza, were the last of the five robberies.
Jan. 29, a Fairfax county judge sent the charges against Rogers in the Fairfax robberies to a grand jury for possible indictment. The charges against Young in Fairfax were sent to the grand jury last October.
Young will come before Judge James H. Chamblin March 9 for formal sentencing, where Chamblin will consider the jury’s sentencing recommendation. Under Virginia law, Chamblin can not extend the recommended sentence, he can only match or reduce the the recommendation of jury.
ACCORDING TO the Sheriff’s Office, Rogers entered the banks while Young waited outside in the car the two used to get away. While Rogers did not brandish a firearm during the robberies, in at least one of the banks he indicated that he was carrying one.
Rogers removed close to $5,000 from the Ashburn bank and $1,905 from the Sterling bank, assistant commonwealth's attorney Sean Morgan, who prosecuted the case, said.
Rogers’ trial in Loudoun is scheduled to begin April 23.
Plowman said that he and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office were very pleased with the verdict and the jury’s recommended sentence in the Young case.
“It is a strong statement from the jury,” he said. “Especially in light of the fact that he was a willing participant, but not the person who actually went into the bank.”