More information has been released in the arrest of Joshua Mort, 22, the man police accused of robbing Pierceton’s Lake City Bank Dec. 23.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed Friday in Kosciusko Superior Court I, Pierceton police responded to the bank where tellers advised a robber entered the bank with a black semi-automatic handgun and ordered everyone to get on the floor.
The robber was wearing a tan South Pole shirt, black gloves and had a blue bandana covering his face. He removed more than $750 from the teller’s cash drawer, then fled on foot, according to court papers.
Police received several tips and a Crime Stoppers tip after they released video surveillance and audio footage of the robbery that identified Mort as the man in the footage. Those tips also told police that Mort lives a close distance away from the bank on Tower Street, court papers state.
According to the probable cause affidavit, police spoke with a man who said he saw a man wearing a South Pole shirt walking from Tower Street toward the bank, then a short time later saw the same man wearing a South Pole shirt and a blue bandana on his face running from the bank area back toward Tower Street.
Police then spoke with a family member and a woman. The family member said he’s known Mort since birth and both the man and the woman identified the voice on the audio surveillance as Mort’s, according to court papers.
Police then spoke to another man, who said the South Pole shirt Mort was wearing belongs to Mort’s girlfriend and that he recognized Mort as the robber in the video footage and the handgun. The man told police he had gotten in an argument with Mort before and that Mort pulled the gun on him. The man also identified the voice in the audio as Mort’s, court papers state.
When police served a search warrant at Mort’s residence where he lives with his mother, 702 W. Tower St., Pierceton, according to court papers, officers found a pair of black gloves that matched the gloves worn at the robbery and an owner’s manual for the handgun.
Court papers state that police then spoke with Mort’s mother, who told them “on the day of the robbery she left Joshua Mort home alone from 1:30 p.m. through 4:50 p.m.” The affidavit states Mort’s mother confirmed her statement to police twice.
When police spoke with Mort, he never mentioned he was left alone, according to the affidavit, but instead said he “was not in town during that time period. He stated he was with (his mother) the entire day right by her side.”
Mort posted his $20,250 bond and is no longer in custody. No court date has been set yet.
Mort is charged with Level 3 felony robbery with a deadly weapon and a Level 6 felony charge of theft.
