Thieving minister heads to jail

BOSTON – A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a pentecostal minister to more than six years in prison for robbing banks from Maine to Massachusetts of more than US$10 000, prosecutors said.

Jerry Hayes (53) was arrested in May after he gave a Massachusetts bank teller a note saying he was armed and demanding that large-denomination bills be placed into a bag. The note added: “Do not put any device into bag: paint, track, etc.If I sense an alarm is set: Someone will be hostage.”The teller gave the minister US$2 550 in cash and a dye pack that exploded as he fled.Police later arrested him and found a loaded .38 calibre handgun on the floor of his car.Federal prosecutors said a subsequent investigation showed he had robbed four other banks in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and that he was laundering the proceeds through an account in the name of the church where he was pastor, the Shema First Apostolic Assembly in Canton, Maine.- Nampa-ReutersThe note added: “Do not put any device into bag: paint, track, etc.If I sense an alarm is set: Someone will be hostage.”The teller gave the minister US$2 550 in cash and a dye pack that exploded as he fled.Police later arrested him and found a loaded .38 calibre handgun on the floor of his car.Federal prosecutors said a subsequent investigation showed he had robbed four other banks in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and that he was laundering the proceeds through an account in the name of the church where he was pastor, the Shema First Apostolic Assembly in Canton, Maine.- Nampa-Reuters