Batavia man sentenced to 25 years in prison for bank robberies

CINCINNATI – A Batavia man was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 300 months in prison for using a gun to rob the Cheviot Savings Bank and robbing Cincinnatus Savings and Loan.

Bruce Lee Felix, 52, was convicted by a jury in July 2019 following a two-and-a-half-week trial.

Court documents and trial testimony said that Felix, wearing a mask and brandishing a gun, surprised a maintenance man at the Cheviot Savings Bank on Stone Drive in Harrison, Ohio, at approximately 8am on June 17, 2015 when the maintenance man was entering the back door of the bank.

Felix placed his gun to the maintenance man’s temple and demanded that he open the vault. Once he realized only bank tellers could open the vault, he ordered the victim down on the floor of the break room, zip-tied his hands behind his back and his feet together, removed the victim’s boots and waited for the tellers to arrive. When the tellers arrived, Felix ordered them to open the vault and remove the money. He then fled the bank.

The jury also convicted Felix of robbing the Cincinnatus Savings and Loan on Springdale Road on Feb. 4, 2015 when he jumped out of the bushes as two employees were getting ready to enter the bank around 8am. He forced them to open the vault and remove the money before ordering them to lie on the ground and tying their hands behind their back.

Felix was arrested on Feb. 4, 2017 in Batavia.

The jury found Felix guilty of one count of bank robbery, one count of armed bank robbery and one count of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

David M. DeVillers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Joseph M. Deters, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Colerain Township Police Chief Mark C. Denney; Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac; Harrison Police Chief Charles Lindsey; and Michael S. Masterson, Director of Enforcement, Ohio Casino Control Commission announced the sentence imposed yesterday afternoon by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black. Assistant United States Attorneys Anthony Springer and Ebunoluwa Taiwo are representing the United States in this case.