BANGOR, Maine — A convicted sex offender was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to more than 9½ years in federal prison for a June 2014 bank robbery in Hallowell.
John Cecil Slater, 68, of Gardiner pleaded guilty in October 2014. By pleading guilty, Slater admitted that he robbed the Hallowell branch of the Bank of Maine at about 10:15 a.m. June 23, 2014.
In addition to nine years and seven months in prison, Slater was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $15,000.
Slater, who has been held without bail since his arrest on July 9, 2014, in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire, by members of the FBI’s Boston Division and Maine State Police, was identified by several people who recognized him in a surveillance photo released to the media.
Slater is required to register as a sex offender for life because of a conviction in Somerset County Superior Court in 1995 for gross sexual assault of a minor and gross sexual assault of a minor in his care.
When he entered the bank in June 2014, Slater wore a straw hat, sunglasses and a tan sports coat and asked to open an account, according to court documents.
Slater handed a bank employee a note that read: “Im Here to Rob your Bank, no silent Alarms my cell phone rings, your all dead, I have a hand grenade, and a gun, no marked bills, or inked, if so, one day I will come back and kill all of you, do you understand.???”
After passing the note, the bank robber told the teller, “I’m sick. I want $15,000 in $100 bills. I don’t care, I’ll shoot.” The bank employee informed the bank manager that the bank was being robbed, and the two provided the cash to Slater, who then left the building, court documents said.
Slater faced up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Under the prevailing federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was between eight years and four months and 10 years and five months.
Defense attorney William Maddox of Rockport recommended in his sentencing memorandum that the judge send Slater to prison for just four years because of his significant health problems, including Parkinson’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder.
BDN writer Nok-Noi Ricker contributed to this report.