Shoreline Bank Robbers Sentenced to 70 Years in Prison

Two men with decades-long histories of robbing banks and other crimes were sentenced Friday to 70 years in prison for a string of area bank robberies, including one at the Wells Fargo branch on Greenwood Avenue in Shoreline two years ago.

Jack P. Sexton, 66, and Ronald C. Kettells, 65, were convicted in March 2013 of conspiracy to commit bank robbery, three armed bank robberies and using a firearm during a crime of violence, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. 

At sentencing Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said these were some of the longest sentences he has handed down, noting the men’s criminal history is “remarkable in its length and depth.”

In the Shoreline robbery September 12, 2011, the men wore masks: one of an elderly man, the other of President Richard Nixon.  The men were armed with a pistol grip shotgun and a handgun.

According to testimony at trial and records filed in the case, the two men were linked to two other bank robberies in the Seattle area between August and October 2011: a Key Bank branch on Holman Road in north Seattle in August, and a Washington Federal Bank branch in West Seattle in October. In the last robbery, one wore a Hillary Clinton mask and the other wore the same “elderly man” mask as in the Shoreline robbery, Durkan said.

Both men have numerous prior convictions.

Kettells has convictions dating back to 1963 for assault, burglary and bank robbery. Sexton has convictions dating back to the 1960s for burglary, forgery and armed bank robbery.

Prosecutors noted these “crimes were recklessly violent and directly endangered the lives of numerous victims and responding officers.  In each of the robberies (the men)…  aggressively brandished a loaded firearm, shouted threats and profanities at the victims, and made various threatening actions such as banging a gun on a desk, racking a shot gun, and waving a gun in close proximity to a teller’s face with (a) finger on the trigger.”