Federal prosecutors opened their case in U.S. District Court Tuesday against a man charged with bank robbery, saying a partially masked man entered a Salt Lake County Key Bank more than a year ago and demanded money from two tellers at gunpoint.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson asked jurors to find Michael Charles Batie guilty of one count of bank robbery and a second charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence.
Prosecutors maintain Batie entered the bank on March 27, 2003, wearing a hooded sweat shirt, a bandanna over his face and gloves. He demanded money from two tellers and, in addition to the cash, received a dye pack that later exploded, Bearnson said.
The case against Batie will largely be made up of circumstantial evidence, she said, from eyewitness accounts of the robbery and subsequent getaway to crime lab results of residue from the dye pack allegedly found inside Batie's vehicle.