Jailhouse tip leads to Wasilla man's arrest for bank robbery

WASILLA — A jailhouse informant told the FBI a Wasilla man “made himself look black” in order to fool witnesses to an armed bank robbery, according to federal court documents.

Ultimately, the man’s friends turned him in to the FBI over concerns about the gun he allegedly used in the robbery, according to a criminal complaint written by FBI special agent Troy Barney.

A federal grand jury indicted Wayne Michael Sexton, 45, of Wasilla on Thursday on one count of bank robbery and one count of using a firearm during and in connection with a violent crime. The robbery, which netted $17,730 from a Credit 1 Credit Union branch, was first reported to authorities Aug. 7. Some witnesses reported that a black man had brandished a revolver at the credit union, then driven off in a red Dodge pickup truck, Barney wrote. Sexton’s ethnicity is listed as white in Victim Information Network, and he remains in Cook Inlet Pretrial.

A woman called the FBI in October to say that the gun and truck were in the possession of a man labeled CW1 in Barney’s complaint. When FBI agents interviewed CW1, he told them he, another man named CW2, and a third friend picked up Sexton the morning of the robbery at Valley of the Moon Park. Sexton told them he had “done something” and was “too shook up” to drive.

The friends drove to a nearby apartment complex, picked up CW1’s red Dodge truck, which Sexton had borrowed to drive into Anchorage that day, and drove to CW1’s house in Wasilla.

A few weeks later, Sexton told CW1 he had “done something bad,” and “did what he did before,” Barney wrote.

“CW1 was aware that Sexton previously served time in prison for bank robbery and believed that he was telling CW1 that he had robbed a bank,” Barney wrote. “Sexton also told CW1 that he buried all of his clothes from the robbery near the park where CW1 and the others picked him up on the day of the robbery.”

FBI officials later talked to CW2, who corroborated the story, and said they were able to drive back to Wasilla despite Sexton’s claims that the truck had overheated.

Agents also interviewed a third man, identified as CW3, at Anchorage Correctional Complex on Oct. 30. CW3 identified Sexton and told agents that Sexton had bragged of stealing about $18,000 from the robbery and disabling a transmitter hidden in the money. Authorities had not publicly released either facts, Barney wrote.

CW3 also told agents Sexton had faked his ethnicity and fooled multiple witnesses to the robbery.

“According to some witness interviews individuals present during the robbery, some of those individuals believed the robber to be African-American,” Barney wrote.

Agents also used cell phone records with Sexton’s location after Sexton provided them with his cell phone number.

Bail has not yet been set in Sexton’s case. Sexton admitted to a series of four bank robberies in 1999 as part of a federal proffer session, according to Barney’s complaint.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.