An ex-convict accused of being a getaway driver in armed robberies at banks in Portland and Lewiston in 2015 was found guilty Thursday after a trial in U.S. District Court in Portland.
The jury convicted Neil West Sr., 65, of Portland on two counts each of robbery and conspiracy, but it also found him not guilty of robbing or conspiring to rob a third bank, Norway Savings Bank in Freeport, which was held up on Aug. 23, 2015.
West and a co-defendant, Joseph Richards, were arrested on Sept. 12, 2015, following a high-speed chase after a robbery at TD Bank in Lewiston in which Richards used a pellet gun to threaten bank employees and escaped with nearly $10,000 in cash, according to court records.
Investigators were able to use evidence found in a backpack at the time of the arrests to tie the two men to a robbery at University Credit Union in Portland on Sept. 4, 2015. Crystal Dufault was also charged with wielding a pellet gun in the University Credit Union robbery.
Both Dufault and Richards pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Before West’s most recent charges, he was sentenced in federal court in Maine on June 4, 2013, to 41 months in prison for another bank robbery. He was released from prison in May 2015, and was serving a three-year term of supervised release at the time of his arrest. In the older case, West had served as the getaway driver for a robbery on Jan. 23, 2012, at a Bank of America branch in Wells, according to court records.
West faces up to 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the robbery charges and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charges. His sentencing date has not been set.
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