The case against a 32-year-old homeless man charged in the armed robbery of a Bank of America branch on Moody Street was moved Monday from Waltham District Court to federal court.
Benjamin Michaud, who has previous addresses in Waltham and Quincy, is charged with armed robbery while masked. Police say he and his partner, 28-year-old Craig Sparks of Worcester, burst through the back door of the Bank of America at 625 Moody St. wielding guns.
They threatened to kill any bank employees or customers who did not comply with their orders, and fled with an estimated $10,676 cash, police have said.
Nearly all of that money has been recovered.
Police caught Michaud on the day of the robbery, and an FBI SWAT team captured Sparks at a Hermon, Maine, home on Friday, said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz.
At a pretrial hearing for Michaud in Waltham District Court on Monday, Assistant District Attorney David Clayton said Michaud will be prosecuted federally and FBI agents were ready to take him into custody.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Paula D. Silsby, meanwhile, said Sparks has been arrested on a criminal complaint filed in Boston on Jan. 22 and charged with armed bank robbery.
Sparks appeared in Maine District Court in Bangor on Friday, Silsby said.
He remains in the custody of U.S. marshals and will be returned to Massachusetts for the criminal proceedings, she said.
At an earlier dangerousness hearing for Michaud, Waltham detectives testified that the FBI had been watching Sparks and tracking his movements via GPS, as they believed he was responsible for a recent rash of robberies across Massachusetts.
Silsby and FBI spokeswoman Marcinkiewicz said they do not know when Sparks will be returned to Massachusetts.
Joyce Kelly can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jkelly@cnc.com.
WALTHAM —
