Alleged bank robber jumps bail, disappears

The suspect in two recent bank robberies in Springfield failed to show up for a scheduled court appearance Monday afternoon, and authorities in at least two states are now looking for him.

Alleged bank robber jumps bail, disappears By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT | March 10,2015 Email Article Print Article WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The suspect in two recent bank robberies in Springfield failed to show up for a scheduled court appearance Monday afternoon, and authorities in at least two states are now looking for him. Matthew Martin, 30, of Weathersfield, has been out on bail for the past two weeks after pleading innocent to grand larceny in connection with the Jan. 28 hold-up of the Windsor County Credit Union in Springfield. Police said they arrested Martin for that robbery after the state crime lab positively matched him to a fingerprint found on the “demand note” which had been dropped at the scene. Hours before the arraignment on the Jan. 28 charge, he had posted $25,000 bail with the help of the AAA Bail Bonds company. Martin was due to be arraigned again on Monday afternoon on an additional charge of grand larceny for allegedly holding up the Citizens Bank in the Springfield Shopping Plaza on Feb. 17 — but after he failed to appear, Judge Theresa DiMauro issued a warrant for his arrest. In paperwork filed with the court, Springfield Police Detective Patrick Call wrote that the decision to charge Martin with the second robbery came about after police executed a search warrant on Martin’s bedroom at his parents’ house in Weathersfield. Call said police found a black safe, a fake beard, a cellphone and several articles of clothing that appeared to be matches for what the robber had been wearing at both holdups. Call said that a pair of black work boots belonging to a relative of Martin’s was an “identical match” to the tread pattern found in the snow outside Citizens Bank, and that Martin had access to them, since they were kept in the hallway of his house. Also telling was a fake “Quaker” beard found in Martin’s room, along with a receipt indicating that it was purchased at The Party Store in Rutland late on the morning of Feb. 17, the same day that a robber wearing an obviously fake beard held up the Citizens Bank in the Springfield Shopping Plaza. Call wrote that the search also turned up “letters written by Matthew bearing similar handwriting to that of the ‘demand note’ from the WCCU robbery and a (possible) piece of paper that (the) demand note may have been ripped from.” Call did not detail what, if anything, had been found inside the safe, but said that police had also found the key to it in the bedroom. Martin has past connections to Rhode Island, having been placed on parole in that state in recent years following drug-related convictions. Authorities said Monday they have reason to believe Martin may now be in Rhode Island, despite his conditions of pre-trial release which included a curfew at his Weathersfield residence, and a court order that he was not to leave Windsor County without prior permission of the court.