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A Selma man was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for armed bank robbery last week.

U.S. Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Stanley Young, 32, was sentenced for committing an armed bank robbery.

U.S. District Judge Terry F. Moorer also ordered that Young undergo five years of supervised release, pay $47,423 in restitution, and pay a $200 mandatory special assessment.

A federal grand jury for the Southern District of Alabama indicted Young and his two codefendants, Jabriel Bell and Fortune Hoppins, for robbing the bank and for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence on Dec. 30, 2019. Hoppins and Bell pleaded guilty to the bank robbery charge last July. The Court sentenced Hoppins and Bell each to 10 years in prison.

A trial jury convicted Young, AKA “New York,” and AKA “Shoota,” on both charges following a three-day trial in October.

The jury heard the evidence that in September of 2016, Young, Bell, and Hoppins robbed the West Alabama Bank & Trust, a federally insured bank in Marion. The victim tellers testified that one robber, Bell, held them at gunpoint while another robber, Hoppins, stole money from the tellers’ drawers. Bell and Hoppins forced one of the tellers to go to the bank’s vault and ordered her to open it. The robbers stole a total of $46,923 from the bank.

According to eyewitness testimony and expert analysis of historical cell-site records established that Young was the getaway driver. After the robbery, the defendants burned the getaway car, and moved to another car, going from Marion to Selma.

In November 2016, Young and Hoppins—fugitives from justice for the bank robbery—were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Bridgeport, Connecticut on outstanding warrants from Perry County. At the time of his arrest, agents found Young in possession of a backpack containing a stolen and fully loaded Glock Model 17 9mm pistol.

The jury also heard testimony about the burglary of a gun store in Safford that occurred after Young and Hoppins returned to Alabama in 2017.  Young pled guilty in a separate federal case to stealing 50 guns with Hoppins and Bell in the Safford burglary. Young had been previously sentenced to 60 months in prison for that crime.

The jury also heard evidence that Young attempted to tamper with two material witnesses while awaiting trial on the bank robbery charges. The evidence showed Young used contraband phones at the jail to access Facebook and offered to pay other inmates $500 to assault one of the witnesses.

The second witness was convinced by Young to plead guilty to a crime, lie to federal agents about Young’s involvement, and offer false testimony in court exonerating Young.

The Selma Police Department, FBI, the Fourth Judicial Drug Task Force, the Perry County Sheriff’s Office, the Marion Police Department and the Bridgeport, Connecticut Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sinan Kalayoglu and Justin Roller prosecuted the case.