The case against a Bridgeport man accused of robbing a Seymour bank of nearly $5,000 during a stickup last February is headed toward trial.
Jury selection began at Superior Court in Milford Tuesday for Thomas Steele, who police say robbed the Webster bank at 15 New Haven Road about noon Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013.
Steele faces charges of first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, and conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny in the case.
He has been held on $200,000 bond since his June 4, 2013 arrest in the case.
Judge Denise Markle, who will preside over the trial, told prospective jurors Tuesday at Superior Court in Milford the trial itself should take about three to four days.
The trial — before a six-person jury, with two alternates — is scheduled to begin June 10.
As part of the jury selection process, Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bepko read a list of about 30 possible law enforcement witnesses — from FBI agents to state troopers to officers from Seymour, Ansonia, Bridgeport, Milford, and Beacon Falls — in court Tuesday.
Bepko also listed about 20 citizens who may be called to testify in the case.
Steele’s lawyer, Daniel Ford, named about a half-dozen residents of Ansonia and Derby he may call to the witness stand.
The lawyers picked three jurors Tuesday, according to a court clerk, and were scheduled to continue questioning prospective jurors Wednesday.
Background
On the day of the robbery, police say Steele walked into the bank, took out a handgun, and ordered everyone to the ground.
Then, police say he jumped over a teller’s counter and filled a shopping bag with $4,749 — and an explosive dye pack that sprays red paint and tear gas.
Police say Steele left the bank out of a back entrance and got into a getaway car waiting for him on Spruce Street.
Steele’s alleged accomplice has not been charged, or named, by police.
About 20 minutes after the heist, a woman walking her dog in Beacon Falls about 2.5 miles away discovered $540 in bills burned and stained by the dye pack.
About an hour after the robbery, another witness — a Webster Bank manager on his way to the robbed Seymour branch — saw a man throw something out of a Cadillac on Route 8 in Trumbull.
The object tossed from the vehicle turned out to be an pellet gun that looks like a handgun.
The witness took down the vehicle’s license plate, which cops tracked to a friend of Steele’s who told them Steele was using the car.
Police located the Cadillac — and Steele — at a motel in Milford a day later.
But when detectives knocked on the door of his room, Steele denied knowing anything about the car, though surveillance footage from the motel showed a man who looked like him drive into the parking lot, get out of the vehicle and rent a room.
Police also found more evidence connected to the robbery a week later at a different Milford motel they say Steele stayed at after sticking up the bank.
