On Thursday jurors at Superior Court in Milford will begin deliberating whether to declare Thomas Steele an innocent man or convict him of robbing a bank in Seymour last year.
The latter could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bepko rested her case Wednesday after presenting a myriad of circumstantial evidence linking Steele to the robbery of the Webster Bank at 15 New Haven Road Feb. 16, 2013.
Whether it’s enough to convince a six-person jury that Steele pulled off the heist — and whether Steele will testify in his own defense — remains to be seen.
Background
Steele, 54, faces charges of first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, and conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny in the case.
If convicted on all the charges, he faces up to 45 years behind bars.
He was charged after Seymour police traced a green Cadillac allegedly used in the heist first to a friend of Steele’s, then to Steele himself.
Police said they also found evidence linking Steele to the heist at motels he had stayed at in the days after the robbery.
Authorities believe others were involved in the robbery, but only Steele has been charged.
A jury of six jurors and three alternates is hearing the case before Judge Denise Markle.
Click here to read about the trial’s first day.
Click here to read about the trial’s second day.
Motel Evidence
Testimony began Wednesday with Christopher Hayes, an employee of the Post Motor Inn in Milford, where Steele allegedly checked into a room about two hours after the stickup in Seymour.
Steele had checked out by early the next morning, but Seymour police showed up several days later asking to see the cabin he had rented there.
Hayes testified that he let the cops into the cabin, where they found the bathroom sink stained red. Police believe the stains were from an explosive dye pack hidden in nearly $5,000 of loot taken during the robbery.
That wasn’t the only evidence that was found at the motel.
About 30 feet from the cabin, Hayes testified, he found a ski mask like the one used in the robbery.
And in the woods near the motel, police found a garbage bag with towels stained with red dye, as well as a container of “Goof Off” and a pair of rubber gloves — the same two items found on a Home Depot receipt found in the car Steele was allegedly using at the time.
Police were able to search the car thanks to Milford Police Officer Colin Lacey, who testified Wednesday that he was on routine patrol in the early morning hours of Feb. 18 when he spotted the vehicle at another motel, the Super 8 on Boston Post Road.
Seymour police had broadcast a bulletin asking area police to be on the lookout for the vehicle, and rushed to the motel when alerted about the car.
But if they expected to get a confession out of Steele and a quick open-and-shut case, they were disappointed.
Seymour Police Detective Steven Ditria, the lead investigator on the case, testified Wednesday that he and another detective walked to Steele’s room.
“We knocked on the door, waiting for someone to come, which they never did after a good 15 minutes,” he said.
Eventually, Ditria said Steele appeared in the window of the room — but that was as cooperative as he got with the cops who asked him about the bank robbery.
“He said he was never in Seymour and didn’t know what I was talking about,” Ditria testified, adding later: “He said if I had enough information on him I would be arresting him right now.”
The detective also testified that Steele denied knowing anything about the green Cadillac parked in the lot, and that he had been dropped off at the motel.
Surveillance footage played Thursday for the jury showed Steele driving the Cadillac into the motel’s parking lot and checking into a room the previous morning.
It also showed him paying cash for the lodgings — cash that, when seized later by police, had red dye stains on it.
Jurors also viewed surveillance footage from the Derby Walmart showing a green Cadillac driving into the lot about 9:30 a.m. the day of the robbery and a man matching Steele’s description walking in and buying an air pistol.
Cops were led to the store after discovering a receipt for the sale in the car during a search at the Seymour police station, where the car was towed after being found in Milford.
Seymour Police Inspector Joseph DeNigris testified that the pistol in question was the same make and model as one discovered by state police off Route 8 near the Bridgeport-Trumbull line in the hours after the heist.
Cell Phone Data
Bepko concluded her case against Steele with testimony from Ditria about Steele’s cell phone.
Police subpoenaed Steele’s cell phone carrier, Sprint, for data showing which cell phone towers Steele’s phone was closest to at various times around the time of the robbery.
Steele’s lawyer, Daniel Ford, tried to get Judge Markle to rule the evidence inadmissible, pointing out Ditria had no expertise in the field of radio frequencies and cell phone data besides speaking on the phone with a Sprint employee who told him how to interpret the data.
The judge denied Ford’s request.
According to Ditria:
- At the time the air pistol was bought at Home Depot the morning of the robbery, Steele’s phone was pinging off a cell tower on South Cliff Street in Ansonia about a mile away.
- At the time of the robbery, Steele’s phone was using a cell tower on Rimmon Street in Seymour, less than a mile away.
- About 20 minutes later, when a Beacon Falls resident found two $100 bills and the remnants of a red dye pack while walking her dog on North Main Street, Steele’s phone was using a cell antenna about 1,000 feet away.
- About 40 minutes after that, when the green Cadillac was spotted driving erratically at the spot the air pistol was discovered, Steele’s phone bounced off a cell tower on Noble Avenue in Bridgeport, about a quarter mile away.
- At the time listed on the Derby Home Depot receipt found in the Cadillac for the purchase of stain remover and rubber gloves, Steele’s phone was using a cell tower about six-tenths of a mile away on Roosevelt Drive.
After Bepko rested her case Wednesday Ford told Judge Markle that Steele had not yet decided whether to testify in his own defense.
He’ll make that decision — as well as deciding whether to put on any witnesses in his own defense — by Thursday morning, after which the lawyers will present closing arguments before the jury begins deliberations.
Steele has been held on $200,000 bond since his arrest in the case last June.
