SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who asked for mercy in his sentencing for robbing banks has been given 15 years in federal prison.Jeffrey Schoon was sentenced Wednesday in Sioux City. His wife, Roxena, was given more than two years in prison. The couple pleaded guilty to robbing four banks within 20 miles of their Wall Lake home in December 2011 and January 2012.

Jeffrey Schoon asked the judge for the 15-year sentence required by a plea agreement in the hopes of seeing his teenage children again. He told the judge in a letter that he’s raised an 18-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son who has cystic fibrosis. He says the average life span of someone with cystic fibrosis is 30, and the deal gives hope his family someday will be reunited.