News

Bank teller charged in robbery of cash withdrawer

By Bill Moss, Published: April 9, 2018

A Henderson County jury returned guilty verdicts last week in the robbery trial of Michael Angram, of 93 Harris Street, District Attorney Greg Newman said.  Angram was convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery in a case that investigators traced back to a tip from a bak teller about a $25,000 cash withdrawal.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Heather Brittain and Doug Mundy. Superior Court Judge Marvin Pope of Buncombe County sentenced Angram to 11 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole upon serving eight years.

Angram was one of three people charged with robbing Marvin Price of Hendersonville. Last May 11 Price went to his local bank and made a cash withdrawal of $25,000. By the time he arrived home, he was attacked from behind and forced to lie face down on the ground at gunpoint. The man, later identified as the defendant, demanded the $25,000 that Price had withdrawn just moments earlier. Price hid the money under his leg in a bank envelope while on the ground  and the defendant rummaged through Price’s car looking for the cash.  A fingerprint recovered from an envelope in Price’s car was a positive match to the defendant.

Price gave the defendant his wallet and the defendant fled on foot without the cash that he so eagerly sought. Price ran inside his home, locked the doors and called 911.  The information Price gave to the sheriff’s office led detectives to question the bank tellers. When the suspect was identified by the fingerprint as Michael Angram, an immediate connection was made to a suspect, a bank teller who was dating the defendant’s brother. The investigation has resulted in the indictments of both the bank teller and her boyfriend, Michael's Angram's brother. Their trial is forthcoming.    
Angram was arrested in Charlotte and questioned at the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department. He admitted that his brother and the brother’s girlfriend at the bank provided the information about Price and the cash withdrawal but denied having a gun in his possession when he did the what he called a “snatch and grab” from Price.  Angram changed his story multiple times, but never admitted to having Price restrained to the ground at gunpoint.

“At trial, Mr. Price told the jury that he believed he was going to die," Newman said. "He gave a description of the shirt color worn by the defendant and was able to describe the pistol pressed against his body while he lay face down on the ground,” Newman said. “Mr. Price also said the defendant kept asking specifically for the $25,000. He gave Angram his wallet, which had his credit cards, driver’s license and $1,000 cash. Mr. Price was a great witness and we appreciate his courage throughout this entire process. What happened to him is very troubling when you consider that someone from inside the bank facilitated the robbery."

The next trial term in Superior Court for Henderson County begins May 14.