Getaway driver in Corinth bank heist pleads guilty to robbery

BANGOR – The second man charged with robbing the UnitedKingfield Bank in Corinth in May pleaded guilty to the charge Thursday in U.S District Court.

Lovie Lee Riddle Jr., 58, of Stetson admitted in court that he drove the distinctive get-away truck after Corey Houle, 26, of Warren, R.I., went inside the bank on May 16 and passed the teller a note that read, “I am sorry this is a robbery. I have a gun.”

Houle pleaded guilty to the bank robbery on Wednesday in federal court in Bangor. Sentencing dates have not been set. Both men face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Wearing a blue blazer over his orange prison garb, Riddle, a native of Alabama, answered “guilty” in a soft Southern accent when U.S. District Judge John Woodcock asked him how he pleaded to the charge.

Riddle and Houle initially pleaded not guilty last month to the charges against them.

Houle is being held at the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft, and Riddle is being held in the Cumberland County Jail in Portland.

Until both men are sentenced, they must be held in separate facilities.

After the bank manager gave Houle about $2,500 in mixed bills, he ran across the street and got into a purple Ford pickup with red flames on the side, according to the prosecution version of events.

Police issued a statewide alert for the pickup, which was spotted about an hour and a half after the robbery on Interstate 95 near Lewiston.

A Maine State Police trooper arrested Riddle after determining that he was driving while intoxicated. The trooper later learned the truck had been linked to the bank robbery.

Riddle turned $400 over to the officer, and Houle was carrying $1,318 in his pockets and another $540 in his right shoe, according to court documents.

Police also found in the truck a pen with the same color ink as the robbery note and a dark nylon jacket that witnesses said the robber was wearing.

The morning of the robbery, the two men were seen leaving a homeless shelter in Bangor in Riddle’s purple truck, according to the prosecution.

Riddle has a lengthy criminal history and was on probation for a conviction for gross sexual assault in 1989.

He also previously was convicted on federal charges for filing false income tax returns.

In 1988, while being held at Oxford County Jail on a felony sex charge, Riddle told workers he had killed as many as 30 people throughout the United States and Canada.

He later retracted and told police that he never killed anybody. Houle has no prior convictions in Maine.

The May 16 incident was the second time since March that the UnitedKingfield Bank had been robbed. The bank also was held up on March 10.

Maine State Police continue to investigate that robbery, but so far no one has been charged.