The husband and wife accused of robbing an Independence Township bank’while their four children sat waiting in the getaway car’pled guilty in Oakland County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 3.
Michael Carter, 43, entered the Comerica bank inside Kroger’s on Dixie Hwy and Maybee Road July 28 with a demand note and implied that he had a gun. Tellers described him as shaking and aggressive.
The couple was confronted at a nearby gas station by Clarkston Police Chief Ernest Combs just moments after fleeing the bank. They were later connected to two other bank robberies in Waterford.
Michael Carter was charged with two counts of bank robbery, one count of armed robbery and one count habitual offender. He pled no contest to all three robbery charges, and guilty to the charge of habitual offender.
‘If I’d been in Mr. Carter’s shoes I’d have been very worried if this case went to trial,? said Paul Walton, assistant Oakland County prosecutor. ‘I’d have been worried that if the jury heard about how I’d committed these bank robberies with my four step-children waiting out in the car that the court would exceed the sentencing guidelines.?
Carter confessed in court that he held up the bank to support a heroin addiction.
Aretha Carter, 31, who waited in the car with her four children while her husband went inside, was charged with two counts of bank robbery, and pled guilty to both. A third charge of armed robbery was dropped by the prosecutor’s office in exchange for the plea.
‘Mrs. Carter indicated that she drove her husband to the bank, and that she knew he was going to commit robbery,? said Walton. ‘But she did not know how he was planning to do it.?
Carter had originally claimed that she hadn’t known her husband was planning to rob the bank, but later changed her story and said she only went along because she feared for her life.
‘We had a statement from her that she did this because she was afraid of her husband, and that he had threatened to beat her and take the kids away if she didn’t go along,? said the couple’s attorney, Arnold Weiner. ‘It was a question of whether or not the jury would believe it.?
The four children were placed in the care of a relative when the Carters were jailed. A maternal aunt is now seeking custody of the children.