Felder arraigned on armed robbery charges
CONWAY — One of the two men police were searching for in connection with an armed robbery near Davis Park last week is headed to jail without bail, and the other is in Maine awaiting extradition.
Ivan Felder, 42, of Center Conway, turned himself in to Conway police on Tuesday afternoon. He faces two felony armed robbery charges, each punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
The other man, 36-year-old Dennest David Banner, was arrested in Fryeburg late Tuesday night by Conway police, Fryeburg police and Maine State Police for being a fugitive from justice. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the Conway court last Friday for criminal liability for the conduct of another.
The two men, along with 31-year-old Samantha Burns, are all suspected of being involved in an armed robbery that took place last Thursday evening on Eastside Road. Felder allegedly threatened two victims with a knife after they dropped a third person off in Davis Park.
The incident led to a long string of arrests. The two victims, 21-year-old Hollie-Anne West and 24-year-old Phillip Swanson, were both held on outstanding warrants the night of the incident. Burns was arrested a short time later and charged with criminal liability for the conduct of another in connection with the robbery.
The victims were not random — West formerly lived with Felder. She is also a witness in a felony assault case against him.
That was one of many points Felder brought up at his arraignment at the Conway courthouse on Wednesday.
“Hollie-Anne West is my number one witness in the case with the hatchet,” he said at one point after Judge Pamela Albee made it a condition of bail that he could not have contact with West.
And he wasn’t done.
“May I speak on my own behalf?” he asked after Conway prosecutor Janet Subers requested he be held without bail. “I turned myself in. I don’t have no reason to run.”
He also told the judge his family needed his income to survive.
This was not Felder’s first time before Judge Albee, however. Roughly six months ago he made similar statements after he was arrested for allegedly striking a man in the head with a hatchet. Felder has maintained he was protecting West, her child and himself in that incident, but the case is still working its way through superior court.
Felder was out on bail for that case when this latest incident occurred, Conway prosecutor Janet Subers said, and the county attorney will be addressing that issue shortly.
Felder continued making remarks as Subers spoke.
“He’s admitted to in the past being a gang member,” Subers told the judge.
“Ex,” Felder said quietly.
When Subers finished, Felder only got louder.
“Can I ask a question?” he said. “What was the weapon?”
“My understanding is it was a knife with a white handle,” Judge Albee said, referring to the knife West and Swanson described to police.
“I don’t own that,” Felder replied.
That is not an issue to be discussed at this time, Albee said.
After she declared he would be held without bail he asked if he could instead be given the option of $35,000 bail, which the bail commissioner had offered the night before. Albee replied no, but that there would be another bail hearing if the county attorney didn’t move forward with the bail proceeding in superior court.
As the hearing came to a close he continued to address the judge. "Nobody took nothing from nobody,” he said.
He then asked if he could get his television back from West. “Can they pick up my big screen TV from her house, please? It’s an Emerson. It’s mine I have all the paperwork.”
“No,” Albee said flatly just before officers escorted Felder out of the courtroom.