A former Windham resident charged with attempted armed bank robbery was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last week.

Michael Anthony Mahone, 27, was a resident of 3 Roosevelt Trail in Windham for about six months prior to a Nov. 19, 2003 attempted bank robbery in Gardiner, Maine.

Mahone, whose associates described as friendly and hard working, was convicted of attempted armed bank robbery and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle in Bangor’s U.S. District Court last October and received sentencing last Thursday. Judge John Woodcock sentenced Mahone to 140 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney James McCarthy, Mahone targeted the Gardiner Federal Credit Union in Gardiner, Maine but was foiled in his attempt because the bank’s vault had already automatically closed by the time Mahone initiated the heist.

“Mahone had come in before the bank closed and was hiding in an interior stairway after-hours when the manager walked into the entranceway to place a bank courier bag on the floor,” McCarthy said. “Mahone jumped into the open and grabbed the manager and tried to get her to give him money.”

Mahone, wearing black clothes and black face-paint, then bound and gagged the two employees still in the bank with duct tape. He threatened them with a pellet gun, which resembled a .45 caliber handgun. After learning that the vault could not be opened for another 12 hours, Mahone loosed the feet of the employees and moved them into two separate rooms where he bound them to chairs.

After about 20 minutes, the manager offered Mahone her truck and the money in it. Mahone left the credit union without hurting anyone opting to take the manager’s 1994 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. The truck was found abandoned in a Scarborough parking lot on Dec. 14.

“The bank employees were in fear for their lives,” McCarthy said. “They were crying when they were speaking in trial. One was saying, ‘I was hoping he would just shoot me to put me out of my misery.’ It was definitely intense for them at trial.”

McCarthy said Windham police were key in apprehending Mahone.

“Windham police did a superb job. Especially Det. James Boudreau who assisted the FBI in looking for Mahone once the investigation focused on him,” he said.

Windham police were the ones, McCarthy added, that tied a second stolen vehicle to Mahone. Police received a report the Saturday after the robbery that a 1996 Ford Explorer was stolen from a Land of Nod Road residence. The second count, interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, occurred because Mahone was still in possession of the stolen Explorer when North Conway police apprehended him Dec. 12 while working at the Applebee’s on Route 16 in North Conway.

While living in Windham from May to Nov. of 2003, Mahone worked as a traveling salesman for Sigma Imports in Gorham. He sold inspirational books, music CDs, trinkets, and jewelry for the company. Although he fled the Lakes Region after the robbery, associates he made while in Windham were surprised when they learned of his conviction and sentencing.

“I would say he was a very personable person,” said Mahone’s former manager at Sigma, Aaron Latti, who now owns the company that has since changed its name to ADS. “He worked for the company for about three years, was a hard worker, and was supposed to go back to college and become a doctor. We were all extremely shocked when we heard the news just because we didn’t expect it.”

Mahone’s former landlord, Stephen Vasapolli, was similarly surprised by Mahone’s criminal acts.

“He was always very, very polite. He really wasn’t a bad kid. I just figure something must have happened to push him over the edge,” Vasapolli said.

Mahone will serve his 140-month term in a federal penitentiary or correctional institution. He is presently at Cumberland County Jail awaiting transfer.