An Edgartown man who police said drove the getaway car in last week’s armed robbery of a Rockland Trust bank branch was arraigned Monday morning in Edgartown District Court.
Miquel A. Jones, 30, of Edgartown was arrested Friday and charged as an accessory after the fact in Thursday’s holdup of the Vineyard Haven bank. The Hon. Benjamin Barnes set bail at $300,000 during his arraignment Monday. Mr. Jones pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The robbery occurred early Thursday, at about 8:15 a.m., when three masked individuals brandishing semi-automatic handguns entered the Rockland Trust bank off the Vineyard Haven-Edgartown Road, ambushing bank employees as they opened the branch, according to police.
The robbers bound bank personnel with duct tape and plastic restraints before stealing an undisclosed sum of money and fleeing in a motor vehicle that belonged to one of the bank employees, police said. The car was found abandoned a short time later, at about 8:29 a.m., in a parking lot near the Manuel F. Correllus state forest off Barnes Road.
Police said they located duct tape and “pieces of green shrub-like vegetation” inside the abandoned stolen vehicle.
Bank staff were not physically injured during the robbery.
On Monday, Cape and Islands assistant district attorney Michael Giardino provided further detail on the theft and susequent investigative process, describing the sequence of events that led to Monday’s arraignment.
Mr. Giardino said that almost immediately after the stolen vehicle was abandoned near the state forest, a dark blue Hyundai Elantra with a missing driver’s side read tire hubcap left the parking lot.
“Through investigative measures, which included speaking to witnesses and observing surveillance video from multiple sources, it was determined that the 2007 Hyundai Elantra was likely involved in the robbery,” Mr. Giardino said in court Monday.
Police later conducted a motor vehicle stop of the Hyundai on Friday, Nov. 18, Mr. Giardino said. Mr. Jones was operating the vehicle and agreed to speak with police, prosecutors said. Mr. Jones admitted to being in possession of the Hyundai for “five weeks” and in the parking lot where the stolen vehicle was abandoned at about 8:20 a.m., prosecutors said.
Police also said they observed other clues that led to Mr. Jones’s arrest in connection with the robbery.
“Jones was evasive throughout the course of questioning,” Mr. Giardino said. “While speaking to Jones, investigators observed a green, vegetation-like substance, which appeared similar to material located in the abandoned employee/victim’s vehicle, on his shoes.”
During a search warrant of the Hyundai, investigators also found three one-hundred dollar bills, two of which displayed sequential serial numbers, prosecutors said, as well as a pair of white Nike sneakers and dark clothing, consistent with what witnesses and surveillance video showed the robbers had worn, Mr. Giardino said.
Police said that one-hundred dollar bills were among the currencies stolen in the heist.
“Based on the evidence that we have now, there is probable cause at least to show that Mr. Jones was involved in the aftermath of the robbery and assisted with the getaway,” Mr. Giardino said.
State police trooper Dustin Shaw compiled the police report and was the arresting officer in the case, according to court documents.
In court Monday, defense attorney Casey Dobel, who represented Mr. Jones, said that Mr. Jones worked as a landscaper and had been coming to Martha’s Vineyard since 2016. She said he previously played on the Jamaican national soccer team, and added that he had worked on the Island for Mark Crossland, who owns Crossland Landscape, and Whitney Brush, who owns Vineyard Decorators.
“This is not somebody who would, in any way, shape or form, be a danger to community. And at the time, there are no allegations that he did anything except possibly help some people after the fact. There’s no allegations that he was present at Rockland trust on the morning of Nov. 17.”
Mr. Giardino said Mr. Jones was a Jamaican citizen and that his time in the country was set to end in March. He said that there could be further charges for Mr. Jones in the case, and that the police investigation for other suspects remained ongoing.
“Police are making efforts to continue to identify and locate the other people involved as perpetrators,” Mr. Giardino said.
A probable cause hearing in Mr. Jones’s case was set for Dec. 16.
