WEST BRANCH, MI — A Bay City man is heading back to prison for his second bank robbery, a crime he tried to cover his involvement in by making bomb threats in numerous counties.
An Ogemaw County Circuit Court judge on Sept. 9 sentenced 34-year-old Michael D. Mier to 11 concurrent prison terms: 24 to 60 years on one count of bank robbery, 47.5 to 70 years on two counts of armed robbery, and 31.6 to 60 years on all eight counts of false report or threat of terrorism.
A jury in July deliberated for about a half-hour before convicting Mier of all 11 charges.
During the trial, the prosecution argued Mier on the morning of Sept. 6, 2019, made several false bomb threats at schools, hospitals, and businesses in Ogemaw, Iosco, and Arenac counties. As police responded to those reports, Mier entered Rose City Mercantile Bank, 505 S. Bennett St., and implied he had a weapon.
Staff there gave Mier about $5,000 and he fled the scene.
About the same time, a caretaker at a cemetery about a quarter-mile from the bank noticed a black pickup truck parked there and thought it suspicious. The caretaker took a photo of the truck and on hearing of the robbery, sent it to law enforcement, police previously said.
A short time later, Arenac County Sheriff’s deputies spotted the truck as it traveled along M-61 near Lincoln Road. Deputies employed a precision immobilization technique (or PIT maneuver), colliding with the truck and causing it to spin out and leave the roadway.
Mier, the disabled truck’s lone occupant, abandoned the vehicle and ran into a nearby cornfield. Police erected a perimeter around the field. An MSP K9 unit and the Standish-Sterling Fire Department responded, the latter deploying a drone unit.
Police eventually flushed Mier from the field. When he continued running and refused to heed commands to surrender, police let loose the K9, which brought Mier down.
This is the second time Mier has been convicted of bank robbery.
Mier in April 2006 held up a bank in Saginaw County. In January 2008, a judge sentenced him to two concurrent terms of 57 months to 15 years in prison on resulting convictions of bank robbery and unarmed robbery.
The Michigan Department of Corrections discharged Mier in February 2012. The following year, Mier was sentenced to 38 months to 15 years in prison on a conviction of second-degree home invasion.
The MDOC discharged Mier on May 29, 2019, just a few months before he committed his more recent holdup.
Read more:
Bay City man convicted of robbing bank, calling in bogus bomb threats
Bay City man accused of robbing Rose City bank also a suspect in bogus bomb threats
Northern Michigan schools, hospitals receive bomb threats