An Emmaus man who acted as his own attorney at trial and used the novel — though unsuccessful — defense of blaming his “evil twin” for a string of armed robberies could have more than a century behind bars to ponder the wisdom of not hiring a lawyer.
Steven Felton, 34, was sentenced Monday to 62 to 124 years in a state prison for 10 heists around the Lehigh Valley.
Lehigh County Judge Kelly L. Banach told Felton that she was offended by his arrogance during the trial, and that he was lucky that none of the victims pulled out their own gun when he pointed his.
“I’m kind of surprised that you weren’t met with a shotgun to the face,” she said.
Felton, who made such a spectacle at his trial that Banach told him he could “try the patience of Job,” accepted his sentence without a word.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk argued for a lengthy sentence, telling the judge that some of the cashiers Felton robbed were so traumatized they could not return to work.
“This was a reign of terror he inflicted on small-business owners,” Falk said. “And there was no evidence that he was stopping. He only stopped because we stopped him.”
A jury last month found Felton guilty of 10 counts of robbery and two counts of theft following a four-day trial that was marked by wild outbursts from the defendant. As clerk after clerk identified him, and prosecutors played numerous store security videos that clearly showed Felton’s face, his objections became more passionate and nonsensical.
“Freedom of speech,” he cried out when a sidebar didn’t go his way. “Unfair prejudice,” he shouted when Falk showed jurors a gun that police found in Felton’s home.
Felton also wept at the defense table and burst into a giggling fit during the trial, forcing the judge to call numerous recesses.
All the robberies occurred during fall 2012. Police said Felton used a pellet gun to rob cashiers at gas stations, beer distributors and convenience stores in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Emmaus, Coopersburg and Whitehall Township. He also robbed a store in Lansdale.
In each of the cases, the robber walked into the store and bought an item, pointing a gun at the cashiers once they’d opened the register to give him change. Nearly all the robberies were caught on video.
Several witnesses described the robber fleeing the crime scenes on a bicycle, earning Felton the nickname “bicycle bandit.”
He was arrested in December 2012, after police from all the jurisdictions where the robberies occurred met to compare notes. A detective noted that the robber only wore a mask while holding up a beer distributor in Emmaus, and surmised that he lived nearby.
A check of vehicles similar to the robber’s getaway car in the Emmaus area led police to Felton’s home.
Jurors deliberated for nearly four hours before finding Felton guilty in 10 of 11 hold-ups. Calling herself “the 13th juror,” Banach told Felton that she would have needed just a fraction of that time to convict him.
“It would have taken me as long as it takes to write the word guilty on a page,” she said. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are the perpetrator.”
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