NEWS

Judge gives lenient sentence to old man who robbed Branson bank for health care

Harrison Keegan
HKEEGAN@NEWS-LEADER.COM

A 77-year-old man who robbed a Branson bank last year saying he wanted access to health care in the federal prison system was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

Joseph Cyrus

Joseph E. Cyrus, 77, will serve his sentence at a medical facility after he pleaded guilty in November to robbing the Central Bank on James Epps Road in Branson days earlier.

Cyrus' attorney Ian Lewis explained in court on Wednesday that his client's wishes had changed. Rather than go to prison, Cyrus asked to be released so that his family could help take care of him on the outside.

"He's a very proud man," Lewis said. "He did not want to ask his children to take care of him at the twilight... He's not a criminal. He chose poorly one day."

At one point, Judge Douglas Harpool asked Cyrus if he robbed the bank so that he could go to prison and get health care. He said yes.

Harpool said this was an interesting and difficult case for him to consider. He said he factored Cyrus' age, health and lack of criminal history into his decision, but he did not feel comfortable giving probation to a bank robber.

"You've done a lot of good in your life, but we can't let people rob banks," Harpool said. "If your goal was to get yourself into federal prison, you were successful."

In federal cases, judges rely on sentencing guidelines that are determined by factoring in the severity of the crime and the defendant's criminal history.

In Cyrus' case, the guidelines recommended a sentence between four and five years in prison.

Both Lewis and federal prosecutor James Kelleher asked that Cyrus receive a sentence below the guideline recommendation. Lewis asked that Cyrus be given credit for the eight months he has spent in the Greene County Jail and be released, Kelleher asked that Cyrus get three years in prison.

Kelleher told the court this was the first time he had ever asked that an offender receive a sentence less severe than what the guidelines suggest.

Cyrus was also ordered to pay $14,669 restitution to Central Bank.

He stole almost $31,000 from the bank but claims to have dumped half of it into a river.

Court documents say Cyrus walked into the Central bank at 9 a.m. on Oct. 16 wearing a blue ski mask and rubber gloves. He then pointed a BB gun at the tellers, handed them a reusable grocery bag and demanded all the cash from the drawers.

Documents say Cyrus was "hunched over" and appeared to be in pain as he walked quickly out of the bank, got in a truck and left.

Investigators traced the truck back to Cyrus who was living at the Yacht Club Mobile Home Park in Hollister, according to documents.

Cyrus turned himself in at the Branson Police Department headquarters a few days after the robbery.

When he pleaded guilty at his arraignment a few weeks later, Cyrus told the judge he was losing his hearing and had bad feet. He said he had been turned away by a Veterans Affairs hospital and was desperate.

Cyrus said on Wednesday that he is on Medicare, but he was told by a VA hospital that he could not be seen for 14 months and he was in extreme pain.

Cyrus' neighbors told the News-Leader last year that Cyrus had a tendency to tell tall tales.

At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Cyrus gave a rambling speech in which he complained about his treatment at the Greene County Jail. At one point he told Judge Harpool "I don't care if you give me 20 years," before his attorney appeared to interrupt Cyrus and advise him to stop talking.