PORTLAND — A Lewiston man convicted of robbing a Lisbon Street bank in 2018 was back behind bars Tuesday.
Keith Phillips Androscoggin County Jail photo
Keith Phillips, 62, appeared in U.S. District Court where he waived his right to argue why he should be released from jail pending a hearing on alleged violations of his supervised release.
Phillips was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of bank robbery and later pleaded guilty to robbing Androscoggin Bank at 30 Lisbon St. in Lewiston on June 6, 2018, of $2,000.
He was sentenced in federal court in 2019 to 70 months in prison plus three years of supervised release.
In July 2022, he was released from prison to a halfway house.
In August 2022, Phillips was arrested on a charge of violation of conditions of his supervised release.
He was arrested earlier this month on three charges of violating supervised release.
On Tuesday, Phillips told U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Karen F. Wolf that he wouldn’t challenge his detention pending a final hearing on the matter, but may wish to argue for his release at a later time.
His probation officer alleged Phillips violated his supervised release on several occasions by failing to report for random drug tests; failing drug tests with the presence of cocaine and fentanyl; failing to report to his sober living facility; and failing to report to his probation office, according to court documents.
His current detention stems from his conviction for bank robbery when he was living on Pierce Street in Lewiston.
According to prosecutors, Lewiston police responded to report of a bank robbery at 30 Lisbon St. on June 6, 2018.
Bank surveillance video footage showed that, shortly after noon, a black male wearing blue jeans, a black, zip-up, hooded sweatshirt and a white undershirt entered the bank. He approached a bank teller and handed her a note that read: “This is a robbery(.) 1 stack of ($100(s.) 2 stacks of 20s(.) I have a gun.”
Police recognized the suspect from the video footage from having encountered him a day earlier at a Pierce Street address on a matter unrelated to the robbery. They found him at that address and arrested him soon after the robbery.
He was wearing the same shirt and pants as the suspect in the video footage and his wallet contained 10 $100 bills.
Phillips later told police he robbed the bank and disclosed where he had discarded the sweatshirt. He also told police that he had hidden the $20 bills, which they recovered under his mattress.
He told authorities he had no gun during the robbery, but believed the teller would be more cooperative if he let them think he did.
Before leaving the bank property on a bicycle, he told the teller to: “Have a nice day.”
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