Man receives 11 1/2 years in botched armed robbery

BANGOR – A Windham man was sentenced Thursday to more than 111/2 years in federal prison for the attempted armed robbery in November 2003 of the Gardiner Federal Credit Union.

Michael Mahone, 26, was convicted in September by a jury of 10 women and two men after a weeklong trial in U.S. District Court in Bangor. He also was convicted of transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines.

Mahone entered the credit union shortly before it closed on Nov. 19, 2003, according to testimony presented at his trial. The robber wore a black ski mask and had white makeup around his eyes and mouth.

He tied up the employees with duct tape and threatened them with a gun and a knife, according to testimony.

He was unable to get any money because the vault had been locked before he entered the building. It could not be opened again until the next morning.

Mahone was arrested in December 2003 in Conway, N.H., after stealing a sport utility vehicle from a driveway near his apartment in Windham.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James McCarthy and the victims Thursday urged the judge to sentence Mahone to 121/2 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines.

Mahone’s mother and other family members asked U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, however, to impose a sentence closer to 10 years, the minimum sentence under the guidelines.

“I did not think I would live to see the next day,” one of the credit union employees said Thursday in describing the botched robbery. “I remember feeling very frustrated and thinking that I should have been at [the grocery store] buying potatoes to cook for my children’s Thanksgiving feast at school the next day.”

She and two other employees told Woodcock that the event was never far from their minds because of how security procedures changed after the attempted robbery.

Credit union employees also said that they were angry because Mahone had not taken responsibility for his actions and had never apologized to them.

Mahone’s mother, Linda Thurston, 54, of Chicago asked the court to be lenient and show mercy. She also asked Woodcock to urge prison officials to offer her son psychological counseling.

Thurston and other relatives spoke directly to the victims, apologizing for the ordeal they had been through.

“What happened to you, no one deserves,” she said. “I pray and I hope for you and I’m thankful to God for your safety. … We’re not making excuses for Michael; we’re trying to understand.”

A teacher and former member of the Arkansas National Guard, Thurston said that she lost custody of Mahone when he was 5 to her ex-husband, an Arkansas state trooper, in a bitter divorce battle.

She told the court that her son had been abused as a child and had told her that he was sorry for what had happened at the bank.

Mahone, dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, tie and dress slacks, wept as his mother and relatives spoke.

In addition to prison time, Woodcock sentenced Mahone to five years of probation following his release. The judge also recommended that he receive counseling in prison.

Richard Hartley, Mahone’s Bangor attorney, said after the hearing that he would appeal the conviction and the sentence to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Mahone also is facing charges in Cumberland County Superior Court. He was indicted earlier this month by a Cumberland County grand jury on a charge of possessing prison contraband.

According to the indictment admitted Thursday in federal court, items described as “shanks” and “clubs” were found in Mahone’s cell while he was being held in the Cumberland County Jail awaiting sentencing in Bangor.

He also may face a similar charge in Penobscot County. A toothbrush, the end of which had been filed to a point, was found Wednesday in Mahone’s cell at the Penobscot County Jail, according to jail officials.

Mahone was moved earlier this week from the jail in Portland to the one in Bangor in anticipation of his sentencing.