Troopers say Virginia Beach man linked to 2019 bicycle bank robbery in Hempfield
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A Virginia Beach man with ties to Allegheny and Westmoreland counties this week proclaimed he is innocent of a 2019 bank robbery in Hempfield during which the scofflaw fled on a bicycle.
Ronald D. Sever, 57, was extradited from Virginia on robbery and other charges filed by state police in connection with 2019 holdup at CFS Bank on Walton Tea Room Road.
As he was escorted into District Judge Mark Mansour’s office Tuesday, Sever claimed troopers arrested the wrong man.
“I wasn’t even within a mile of it. I think police have their wires crossed,” Sever said.
The Nov. 20 robbery happened less than half a mile from Hempfield Area High School, which state police temporarily locked down during a search.
Witnesses reported seeing the suspect ride away on a bicycle. Troopers searched a private drive less than a mile away, where they allege the robber ditched the bike, got into a SUV and drove off. Police recovered the bicycle in the driveway of an abandoned home where witnesses said the SUV was parked.
Police described the suspect as a white male about 40, wearing black clothing and white tennis shoes. Police said he was wearing gloves and a yellow and white safety vest. The man entered the bank and passed a note to a bank teller demanding cash, troopers said.
Court documents allege the robber did not show a weapon, though he reportedly kept a hand inside a hooded sweatshirt as if he had a gun.
The robber made off with $265, according to court records.
Trooper Brandon Yeager reported bank surveillance video showed the suspect arriving and leaving on a bicycle.
Before he pedaled out of the parking lot, Yeager said a dye pack wrapped in a bundle of the stolen bills “exploded, causing a large cloud of red smoke as the man exited the video.”
Tips started coming in to state police almost immediately.
About an hour before the robbery, two men entered the Goodwill store on Donohoe Road and bought a blue bicycle, employees told police.
According to witnesses, Yeager said one man rode the bike around the store while the other paid for it.
Yeager said police also had a description of the silver Ford Expedition the suspects drove to and from the store via surveillance video.
Troopers noticed there was a McDonald’s coffee cup in the SUV so they obtained surveillance video from a nearby restaurant. That recording provided them a partial license plate number along with the detail of a University of Colorado Buffaloes sticker on the vehicle.
Troopers matched the partial Virginia registration to a silver Expedition that Sever drove. In addition to living in Greensburg and West Mifflin in the 1990s and early 2000s, they learned Sever lived in Colorado before moving to Virginia Beach.
Police put out an alert for the vehicle. It was stopped Jan. 6, 2020, in Utah after a brief chase.
Utah authorities said Sever was driving but denied then any knowledge of the Hempfield robbery when questioned.
“Sever claimed a few days before (the robbery) he was travelling north on I-95 near Jacksonville, Fla., when he stopped for a hitchhiker,” Yeager wrote.
Sever told police that the hitchhiker, he only know as “J.T.,” drove north with him to Virginia and then to Pennsylvania.
Sever also claimed that he had recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and was driving across the U.S. to visit relatives, including a sister in the Belle Vernon area, Yeager said.
Sever told investigators that “J.T.” claimed he had found a checkbook and wanted to cash some “bad checks,” so he parked near the bank and let “J.T.” out. Sever told police he parked a distance from the bank “because he did not want to be involved in any check-cashing crimes.”
“Sever said, when J.T. returned to the vehicle, he smelled like fire and told Sever to drive away quickly,” Yeager wrote.
Yeager said Sever claimed he kicked “J.T.” out of his vehicle after learning he had robbed a bank. Sever provided authorities with a cigarette lighter that he said belonged to “J.T.” in hopes of getting an identification. Sever continued to deny involvement in the bank robbery.
Based on evidence, Yeager said troopers believe Sever was involved in the robbery. Court records indicate that police have not identified “J.T.”
Sever is a registered sex offender in Virginia, having been sentenced in 2009 to 10 years in prison for producing child pornography and sexually assaulting two girls. After he was arrested in Utah, Sever was extradited to Virginia, where he was jailed for failing to follow sex offender registry laws.
Court records show he was convicted of sexual assault in Colorado in 1996.
Mansour ordered Sever to the county jail without bond pending a preliminary hearing Jan. 22.