Timmy Lee Porter walked into a Midtown bank this month and handed a teller a note scribbled on the back of a bank slip.

"This is a bank robbery, place 1 100.00 bill on the counter or I will shoot you."

Police arriving on the scene moments later found that note on the floor. The $100 bill was still in the bank. So was Porter, who had taken a seat on a couch in the bank lobby, apparently waiting to be arrested.

Porter, 41, was initially charged with felony bank robbery, but after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in front of a magistrate judge Thursday to a single misdemeanor count of bank larceny. Why Porter held up the bank and then waited to be arrested was unclear.

"Why he did what he did is a mystery," Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cooper said.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court by FBI Special Agent Steven Payne, Porter walked into First National Bank Alaska at 201 W. 36th Ave. just after noon on Oct. 6 and passed the note to a female teller.

When the scared and surprised woman paused, Porter said, "I'm serious," though he didn't show a gun. The woman slid the demand note to the floor and passed the robber a bundle of cash from her drawer.

"Porter removed what (the teller) believed to be a single $100 bill from the money she provided him, then left her station, sat on a couch in the bank lobby, watched the main entrance and appeared to be waiting for something," Payne wrote in an affidavit.

That something came moments later when police swarmed the bank and found him.

"I'm the guy you're looking for," Porter said, according to the affidavit. He showed them a single $100 bill.

REDUCED CHARGE

"In my experience ... I'm unaware of any particular instances like that," said Cheri Gillian, spokeswoman for FNBA. "It doesn't seem to be the smartest move to me, but what do I know?"

After his arrest, Porter was taken to FBI headquarters, where he was questioned and admitted he robbed the bank, though he denied having a gun, according to Payne's affidavit.

In court Thursday, Porter appeared relaxed as he discussed the sentencing range with his attorney. His combed gray-brown hair and moustache gave him a clean-cut appearance as he sat through the brief hearing in yellow prison garb stamped with the words Anchorage Correctional Complex.

According to the plea document, Porter will be sentenced to one year in prison -- the maximum for the bank larceny charge -- rather than face up to 20 years in prison for bank robbery. He will not be fined under the deal because he does not have the money to pay one, the document says.

"The parties reached an agreement, which doesn't happen very often in federal court, where a felony is voluntarily reduced by the government to a misdemeanor," said Porter's attorney, Mike Dieni. "Based on their investigation and everything else, they decided that was the right thing to do."

Porter is set to be sentenced Jan. 12, when he will also have to re-enter his plea, because the court will not formally accept it until a district judge can inform Porter of the consequences of a guilty plea, Dieni said.

MOTIVE UNCLEAR

Dieni declined to publicly disclose the rationale for the crime. Porter turned down an interview request through the Department of Corrections.

Porter is from Arkansas and, according to an order by Magistrate Judge John Roberts that he be detained pending trial, has few ties to Alaska. Porter's family in Arkansas declined to comment on what brought him here and why he might have held up the bank.

An FBI spokeswoman in Washington, Denise Ballew, said bank robbers sticking around to be arrested is "very unusual," but that the agency did not have numbers immediately available for how often that occurs.

Alaska generally sees 10 to 20 bank robberies a year, but it's not without its share of odd cases, said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez.

Back in 2007, a man swinging a flaming torch held up a Fairview credit union, threatening to burn down the building and set people aflame if his demands weren't met. This August, a man gave his real name and account number -- and showed his photo ID -- to a teller at a Midtown credit union before passing her a hold-up note.

"People are motivated -- sometimes it's to feed a drug habit, sometimes it's just pure economics and other times it's looking for a warm place to sleep," Gonzalez said. "A lot of times they're homeless, nowhere to go, and they think that's the easiest way to get three warm meals and a cot."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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