A bank robber who escaped a downtown Chicago federal jail in December was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years for a robbery in south suburban Homewood.
Kenneth Conley received the maximum sentence for the May 13, 2011, robbery of MB Financial Bank in a grocery store and was ordered to pay $3,969 in restitution to the bank.
Conley pleaded guilty to the robbery in October 2012, then escaped from Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center with Joseph Banks on Dec. 18, marking the first jail break since 1985.
Banks was caught two days later, and Conley was re-captured after a brief chase and a struggle at an apartment complex in Palos Hills.
Both Conley and Banks were serving time in the Loop facility when authorities said they broke a large hole into the bottom of a window and fashioned a rope from bed sheets to climb about 20 stories to the ground.
Following their escape, investigators said they found metal window bars tucked inside the inmates' mattresses, fake metal bars inside the cell and clothing in the shape of a body under the bed's blankets.
