Windham man’s trial for robbery under way

BANGOR – The trial of a Windham man charged with the attempted armed robbery of the Gardiner Federal Credit Union last November got under way Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Michael Anthony Mahone, 26, has pleaded not guilty to the charge and not guilty to stealing a Ford Explorer and driving it across state lines in the days following the botched holdup.

A man wearing a ski mask and white makeup around his eyes and mouth pointed a knife at a credit union employee just as it was closing on Nov. 19, Assistant U.S. Attorney James McCarthy told the jury Monday in his opening statement. The man tied up that woman and another female employee with duct tape and demanded money.

He was unable to get any money because the vault had been locked before he entered the building and could not be opened again until the next morning. The robber fled in an employee’s pickup truck, said McCarthy.

The women were able to free themselves and call police.

Later that day, police found Mahone’s silver Ford Probe a short distance away next to a trash container in an industrial park, the prosecutor said. Police found a ski mask with white makeup on the inside of the mouth and eye holes, shoes, dark clothing and three pairs of gloves inside a garbage bag. Investigators identified Mahone’s DNA on the gloves, inside the ski mask and in the shoes, McCarthy said.

Mahone was arrested on Dec. 12 working at a restaurant in Conway, N.H., and living in the motel next door. A 1996 Ford Explorer stolen from a Windham farmhouse the day after the robbery was found in the motel parking lot, according to McCarthy. The truck taken from the credit union had been found a few days earlier in a Scarborough parking lot.

Defense attorney Richard Hartley of Bangor told the jury Monday that his client was anxious to take the stand and tell his story. The attorney described Mahone as a native of Little Rock, Ark., in Maine working as a salesman, an artist and gifted musician who played eight instruments.

“Michael Mahone is guilty of being a coward and not telling the police what he knew about his crime,” Hartley said. “He’s guilty of using poor judgment … but he is not guilty of these crimes.”

Hartley said that the defendant was given a “robbery kit” by a man nicknamed T who told him to put on the clothes inside and meet him at the Gardiner Federal Credit Union on Nov. 19. Mahone did that, but changed his mind as he approached the building. He then left and ditched the clothes by the trash container, where they were found by police. He left his car because it wouldn’t start, Hartley told the jury.

The trial is scheduled to take six to eight days before the jury of 12 women and two men, two of whom are alternates, begins deliberating.

If convicted on both charges, Mahone faces up to 30 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.