Bradley Monical took the stand

Bradley Monical took the stand in his own defense Wednesday, the second day of his jury trial for the April 29 robbery of Sterling Savings Bank. Testimony concluded Wednesday afternoon and the case went to the jury. A verdict could be returned today.

Witnesses testified Tuesday and Wednesday that a man in a red coat robbed the bank at gunpoint, then left the building. A bank employee followed the robber, lost sight of him behind the Coos Art Museum for roughly 15 seconds, and saw Monical, dressed in black, emerge on the other side.

"A guy ran smack into me, I fell on my butt," Monical testified. "He drops the bag and it fell immediately on my lap."

Monical said he was in town the afternoon of April 29 to purchase medical marijuana with his cousin, Tucker White.

While White made the purchase, Monical killed time in downtown Coos Bay. He was on his way back to meet his cousin in a parking lot near the bank when a man in red ran into him.

Monical examined the strange bag in his lap long enough to see the large quantity of money inside, he testified.

He said he mistakenly thought the man was running from a drug bust, possibly for the transaction his cousin was participating in.
"In the background I heard sirens," Monical testified. "I was freaked out. I put the bag around my neck."

Then he tucked it under his coat and zipped the coat up.
A police officer, with an updated description from the bank employee who tailed the robber, arrested Monical on the corner of South Second Street and Anderson Avenue at gunpoint.

"I was thinking, ‘Oh f-, what is going on?'" Monical's eyes filled with tears.
"Do you always wear pantyhose around your neck?" Deputy District Attorney Erika Soublet asked Monical on the cross-examination.

Tuesday, Coos Bay police officer Ken Labrousse, who arrested Monical, testified that Monical had the top of a pair of beige pantyhose around his neck with eye slits cut in them. Labrousse took a picture of the pantyhose, taunt around Monical's neck, shortly after arresting him. Witnesses said the robber wore a beige mask.