Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty Jr. announces that 26 year-old Samuel M. Jones of Grover Cleveland Avenue, Amherst, NY, was sentenced today by Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case to ten years in state prison and five years of  post-release supervision. 

Jones had previously pleaded guilty as charged to one count of Robbery in the First Degree in connection with the July 24, 2014 gunpoint robbery of the Jim’s Steakout restaurant on Sheridan Drive in Amherst. 

Jones has a prior violent felony conviction for attempted burglary and was sentenced as a second violent felony offender as a result.

The Amherst Police Department deserves special recognition for its investigation of the robbery.  Assistant District Attorney Paul E. Bonanno, chief of the Special Investigations and Prosecutions Bureau, prosecuted the case.