DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
GRETCHEN C.F. SHAPPERT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2008
CONTACT: SUELLEN PIERCE
704.338.3120
FAX 704.227.0264
TWO HALFWAY HOUSE ESCAPEES INDICTED FOR ARMED BANK ROBBERY Pair Alleged to Have Robbed Mooresville Savings Bank in Huntersville on April 15, 2008 CHARLOTTE - A federal grand jury in Charlotte has indicted Kelvin Gerard Moss, 33, and Shonn Raphelle McCain, also 33, in connection with the armed robbery of the Mooresville Savings Bank, 401 Gilead Road, Huntersville, NC, on April 15, 2008, announced U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert.
Shappert is joined in today’s announcement by Special Agent in Charge of FBI Operations in North Carolina, Nathan T. Gray, and Philip K. Potter, Chief, Huntersville Police Department. Substantial assistance in the investigation was provided by officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
The bill of indictment alleges that Moss and McCain committed armed bank robbery of the Mooresville Savings Bank, 401 Gilead Road, Huntersville, NC, on April 15, 2008, and that in the course of that crime of violence, they committed a federal firearms violation. Kelvin Gerard Moss is charged singularly with being a felon in possession of a firearm on April 15, 2008.
According to additional official court documents, on April 15, 2008, Defendants Moss and McCain were both inmates at the McCloud Center, a facility for federal inmates who are about to be released from their incarceration. Court documents reveal that Moss and McCain had both received a pass from the McCloud Center and left there together on the morning of April 15, 2008 to search for jobs. Bureau of Prisons officials confirmed that McCain and Moss are residents of the McCloud Center and did not return by noon on April 15, making them “technical escapees.”
Both defendants are currently in federal custody in connection with the bank robbery, having been ordered detained pre-trial by U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn, III following their respective arrests. Both defendants are currently set for an arraignment hearing on the charges contained in the indictment on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Charlotte.
The investigation is being conducted by Special Agents John Mayer, David McCranie, and Andrew Cheramie of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force and Detective Andrew Dempski of the Huntersville Police Department. The prosecution is being handled for the government by Assistant United States Attorney Steven R. Kaufman. The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. In the American justice system, a person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty in a court of law.
If convicted as charged, the defendants face penalties as follows: Count One (armed bank robbery) carries a maximum statutory term of 25 years’ imprisonment. Count Two carries a minimum of seven years’ imprisonment and a maximum of life imprisonment, and Count Three (in which Defendant Moss is charged) has a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment. Each count also carries a possible $250,000 fine.