GALVESTON, Texas – Two men who were found guilty of a violent 2005 armed robbery at University FCU, and later shot a witness to the crime, on Friday were sentenced to life in prison.
Keelon Senegal and Broderick York, both 31, each received two consecutive life sentences – plus 25 years – after a federal court jury convicted them on a slate of charges last year.
The two burst into the credit union at 11:15 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2005, and pointed their guns at the tellers, who gave them $9,879 in cash. As they got into a Chevy Suburban getaway car in the parking lot of the credit union a red dye pack exploded, prompting them to leave almost all of the tainted cash – $9,791 of it – in the getaway car and to flee on foot with two accomplices who had served as lookouts.
The four eventually were captured and convicted using DNA samples taken from “doo-rags” left behind in the car.
Among the charges the two were convicted on were witness-tampering counts relating to the shooting of a potential witness in September 2005, who picked up three of the robbers after they abandoned the getaway car.
The two lookouts convicted in the case, Arthur Winn and James Franklin, testified they had robbed Coastal Community FCU a month earlier and had recruited Senegal and York for the University FCU job.
Winn was sentenced to 12 years, three months in prison, while Franklin received a term of 22 years, seven months.
