Bank robber gets 20-year sentence

Randy Copenhaver will serve at least 14 years in prison for robbing a Cedar Rapids bank in 2010, a judge ordered Friday morning.

Copenhaver, 43, was sentenced to 10 years each on two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of second-degree theft. Judge Mitchell Turner allowed the theft sentence to be served concurrently, but ordered the robbery sentences be served consecutively.

State law requires Copenhaver serve 70 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole, said Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden, who prosecuted the case.

Copenhaver wore a mask when he passed a note to a teller at Community Savings Bank, 3414 Mount Vernon Road SE, on Feb. 11, 2010 announcing a robbery and instructing her not to push any alarm buttons. He was arrested the following day after police reviewed surveillance video that showed the getaway vehicle.

Officers started a search for the red Chevrolet Tahoe and found it at Vernon Heights Auto, about a mile east of the bank. The dealer had lent it for a test drive, and the owner still had a copy of Copenhaver's driver's license.

A jury convicted Copenhaver in July.