Facing up to 45 years in prison for robbing a Seymour bank of $4,700 and change last year, Thomas “Country” Steele maintained his innocence Wednesday in Superior Court in Milford.
Rising to address Judge Denise Markle at his sentencing in the case, Steele, 55, listed inconsistencies in testimony from a trial in June while asking the judge to “set aside” a verdict delivered by a six-person jury after fewer than two hours of deliberation.
Judge Markle declined, instead sentencing Steele to serve 10 years behind bars in the case after noting his lengthy criminal record and the four days’ worth of evidence arrayed against him.
Though he didn’t testify in his own defense at his trial, Steele on Wednesday named a friend who testified against him at his trial as the real perpetrator of the robbery. He admitted meeting up with the man afterward and allowing the man to use his name to check into a motel.
“That day I never went in the bank, I never drove the car to the bank,” Steele told the judge. “The only thing, if I’m guilty of anything, was receiving money.”
Background
Seymour police arrested Steele last June after a four-month investigation into a Feb. 16 stickup at the Webster Bank branch at 15 New Haven Road.
During the heist a robber clad in a mask flashed a pistol at bank customers and employees before emptying a cash drawer of $4,749 and fleeing.
He was charged after Seymour police traced a green Cadillac allegedly used in the heist first to Steele’s friend, then to Steele himself.
Cops also found evidence linking Steele to the heist at motels he had stayed at in the days after the robbery.
Steele declined an offer of between five and 10 years behind bars, opting instead to take the case to trial, at which Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bepko introduced more than 70 exhibits of mostly circumstantial evidence linking Steele to the crime.
Click here to read about the first day of the trial.
Click here to read about the second day of the trial.
Click here to read about the third day of the trial.
Click here to read about the final day of the trial and the jury’s verdict.
Arguments
Bepko on Wednesday recounted the evidence she presented at Steele’s trial, saying the police and jury “did an excellent job of connecting all the dots.”
The prosecutor then asked Judge Markle to hand down an 11-year prison sentence in the case, noting Steele’s criminal record dates back to the early 1980s. She said that days after his arrest in connection with the robbery, he was put in “punitive segregation” for making threats and being disruptive in jail.
“So even when in confinement the defendant cannot conform to community standards and abide by the rules that keep the other inmates and society safe,” Bepko said.
Steele’s lawyer, Daniel Ford, asked the judge to give Steele seven or eight years behind bars.
Ford said he believed Steele when he said he didn’t actually perpetrate the stickup, “but a jury does what a jury does.”
He went on to concede that Steele, who he said moved to the Valley from Alabama 30 years ago and worked as a handyman, had a lengthy criminal record, but not for anything as serious as a bank robbery.
“This case stands out,” Ford said. “It doesn’t fit his profile.”
Steele told the judge that his conviction was based on “only conjecture and guesswork,” noting the state didn’t present any DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
“They don’t want to know the truth,” Steele said. “They just want to win.”
Steele contradicted Bepko’s portrayal of his past, saying he is “a father, and a grandfather … I’m a pillar of my community.”
Sentence, Reaction
The judge disagreed after reading from Steele’s criminal history, which she said dated back to a 1982 conviction out of Alabama.
The judge pointed out Steele was in and out of jail throughout the 80s and 90s on charges varying from second-degree assault to larceny to failing to appear in court to selling narcotics.
“This is not a record that’s intermittent,” Judge Markle said. “It’s a continuing record of 30 years of ongoing criminal activity. That’s something the court cannot pretend does not exist.”
“Although (you argued) about being a good member of the community, I have to say it’s contradicted by (your record),” the judge went on.
She also rebuffed Steele’s contention that he had nothing to do with the stickup, noting that surveillance footage recorded the morning of the robbery at the Wal-Mart on Route 34 in Derby showed “a very clear depiction” of Steele buying the air pistol hours before the heist.
“Based on the evidence that was presented … they have come to the conclusion that you are guilty of the offenses as charged,” the judge said. “I have to respect the jury’s verdict in this case, and I will do that not saying that I close my eyes or ears. I have seen the evidence, I have heard the evidence, and although I’ve considered your comments, I have to indicate to you that certain evidence stands out as supporting the verdict.”
The judge then sentenced Steele to serve 10 years in prison in the case, to be followed by four years of special parole during which Steele must stay away from Webster Bank, undergo substance abuse and psychological evaluation and/or treatment, possess no weapons, and seek full-time employment.
Afterward, Ford said he thought the judge’s sentence was “fair and appropriate sentence given the jury’s verdict.”
After the trial Ford said that Steele may have grounds to appeal his conviction based on a Seymour detective’s testimony linking Steele’s cell phone to the robbery, though no appeal had actually been filed as of Wednesday.
Ford, who served as a special public defender in Steele’s case, said any appeal of the jury’s verdict would be handled by the Office of the Chief Public Defender in Hartford.
