TACOMA — Michael J. Fenter, a Port Townsend boat builder and farmer accused of robbing a bank, will face trial beginning Feb. 2 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
Fenter, 40, is accused of robbing $73,000 from a Bank of America branch in Tacoma armed with a .40-caliber Glock handgun in October.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Fenter remains in custody at the federal detention center in SeaTac without a posted bail.
The FBI is investigating Fenter, who had no criminal record at the time of his arrest, for bank robberies this year in Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco and Tacoma.
He has not been charged with those robberies.
He is not being investigated for bank robberies on the North Olympic Peninsula, the FBI said.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin earlier this week.
Both the prosecution and defense requested the trial date be moved while the FBI continues to investigate.
Before he was taken into custody on Oct. 8, Fenter lived on the 40-acre Compass Rose Farms near Port Townsend with his wife, Kateen Fenter, and their three children and his in-laws.
The family raised wool, honey and produce sold at local farmers markets.
The farm is owned by Kateen Fenter and her mother.
A graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, Michael Fenter, working in his field of marine carpentry, paid the bills and the mortgage on the land that the couple bought in 2007, his wife said.
