Prison Escapee Sentenced for 2011 Bank Robbery

Reported by Patch Editor Nick Swedberg

A former Tinley Park man who escaped from federal custody in December was sentenced Wednesday to prison after pleading guilty to robbing a Homewood bank.

Kenneth Conley, 39, received the maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the May 13, 2011 robbery of the MB Financial Bank, located inside a Homewood grocery store, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.

Conley pleaded guilty to bank robbery on Oct. 29, 2012. He and another convicted bank robber, Jose Banks, 37, broke out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a skyscraper prison in downtown Chicago, on Dec. 18. Authorities found knotted bed sheets hanging from a cell window.

Read more: Scenes From a Manhunt (Photo Gallery)

Their escape sparked a manhunt in the south suburbs. Officers from multiple departments were seen searching for the pair in Tinley Park and New Lenox. Banks was arrested a few days later, on Dec. 21, in Chicago.

Officers caught Conley on Jan. 4 when he tried to disguise himself as an elderly man while hiding out in Palos Hills, police said. He was indicted for the escape later that month.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan ruled that Conley was a career offender and showed he had not accepted responsibility by obstructing justice after the guilty plea, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago. Conley also must pay $3,969 in restitution to the bank.

Conley reportedly showed the butt of a what appeared to be a gun during the 2011 robbery, and threatened to shoot a bank teller in the head, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It turned out to not be a real gun.

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