- May 2, 2024
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His brother said he did it. Witnesses said they saw a man who looked like him do it. But after a two-day trial, a jury on Wednesday found Michael Cona not guilty of an armed bank robbery.
Cona stood accused of robbing Hancock Bank in the Palm Harbor Shopping Center in June 2011. He was charged with robbery with a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery.
It took more than three hours for jurors to reach a verdict. In his closing statement, defense attorney Kurt Teifke argued there was insufficient evidence to convict Cona. Paramount to the prosecution’s case was testimony from Cona’s brother, Shawn.
The brothers had a tumultuous relationship. Shawn Cona once stole his brother’s photo identification and Social Security number to get prescription drugs, Teifke said. He was also an avid drug user at the time of the robbery, and admitted during depositions to periods of time when he couldn’t remember what happened. Teifke asked jurors to consider whether they could trust Shawn Cona’s testimony before making a decision.
According to Shawn Cona, he was at home with his girlfriend June 22, 2011, when his brother knocked on the door and asked to borrow Shawn Cona’s gun. Then, he asked for a ride. The two drove around town together.
“They went out looking for money,” said prosecuting attorney Richard Price. “They were high; they were junkies. They had no direction; they would take a bank, a convenience store, anything.”
Shawn Cona said his brother disguised himself as they were driving. He parked at Hancock Bank and his brother walked inside. When his brother returned, Shawn Cona said he drove out of the parking lot, hitting the curb as he left, and the siblings went home and divided their spoils, an amount greater than $4,000.
Shawn Cona exchanged this information about his brother for a plea bargain with the state. He pleaded guilty in October 2011, just after telling investigators his story, and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of probation.
“(The prosecution’s) case is Shawn Cona,” Teifke said during his closing argument. “They have all these other circumstantial flakes of evidence, but frankly, there is nothing else.”
Teifke criticized the lack of physical evidence collected by investigators: the gun allegedly used in the robbery, which was found under a mattress in the room Shawn Cona was staying in, but no fingerprints.
Witnesses at the bank said they saw a masked man with a ponytail enter the bank before pulling his gun and demanded money. If anybody moved, he would shoot, he said. One witness moved her purse slightly, and the man turned to her, pointed the gun at her and demanded again that everyone stay still.
Although Michael Cona met the physical description of the suspect — his hair was long at the time of his arrest and he stands shorter than 6 feet as witnesses described — Teifke said this was not enough to convict his client of the crime.
Other evidence offered by the state included a mail carrier who said under oath that he was on his route the day of the crime when he witnessed Shawn Cona, whom he knew personally, pull over in a white Oldsmobile Alero, according to court documents. The witness said Shawn Cona tampered with the rear of the vehicle while a passenger wearing a disguise sat in the front seat. When Shawn Cona sped away, the vehicle’s license plate was missing.
That car matched the one pinned to the crime. Witnesses said they saw the suspect car hit a curb as it sped away. When investigators located the Cona brothers, and by extension, the Alero, it had a donut tire on its front left wheel — the same that would have hit the curb.
But in the end, this was not enough to convince the jury to find Michael Cona guilty. The bulk of the case hinged on Shawn Cona’s testimony, which was at times inconsistent.
Michael Cona was released Wednesday afternoon.
