NEW HAVEN- A federal grand jury has returned an indictment, charging John J. McCarthy, 63, of Newtown with one count of armed bank robbery in connection with an August incident in Newtown, Deirdre M. Daly, US Attorney for Connecticut said in a statement.

In court on October 27, McCarthy pleaded not guilty to the charge before US Magistrate Sarah A.L. Merriam. The federal indictment was issued on October 11. As alleged in the indictment, on August 24, McCarthy, who was armed with a large knife, robbed a branch office of Bank of America on Queen Street in Newtown.

McCarthy has been detained since his arrest by Newtown Police on August 24. Since his arrest, he has been held on $250,000 bail at Bridgeport Correctional Center.

On January 28, 1994, McCarthy was sentenced in US District Court in Waterbury to 235 months of imprisonment and five years of supervised release for possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. McCarthy was released from federal prison in March 2017 and is currently on supervised release.

If convicted of the bank robbery charge, McCarthy faces a maximum prison term of 25 years. He also faces an additional imprisonment if he is found to have violated the conditions of his supervised release.

At his arraignment in state Superior Court in Danbury on August 25, McCarthy pleaded not guilty to the four state charges that he faces in the bank robbery - first-degree robbery, carrying a dangerous weapon, second-degree threatening, and fifth-degree larceny.

Police arrested McCarthy, who was fleeing on foot, near the bank shortly after the robbery occurred.

In searching McCarthy, police found a large kitchen knife in a front pants' pocket, and in his other front pants' pocket, police found the $833 that McCarthy had allegedly stolen from the bank, according to court documents.

Police have said McCarthy smelled of alcohol, stumbled, and had slurred speech, appearing to be intoxicated.

In a statement provided to police, a bank employee explained that she knew McCarthy because he is a bank customer. She told police that McCarthy entered the bank and asked for a pen, after which he wrote a note stating that if he was not given money he would kill everyone in the bank and himself. The employee then handed McCarthy $833 in currency, after which he left and went across the street to the rear of a store, according to court documents.

In the court papers, police said that in the note that McCarthy wrote, he claimed he had a gun and would kill everyone in the bank and himself unless he got money.

Police said that after they transported McCarthy to the police station, he was transported to Danbury Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation due to his homicidal/suicidal statements and his apparent intoxication.

The last bank robbery in Newtown occurred in April 2011.