
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994                   TAG: 9403190088
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GUILTY PLEA IN BANK ROBBERY

A Roanoke man who robbed a First Union branch in November told a federal judge Friday he decided to turn himself in five hours later because the crime laid heavy on his heart.

David Hamilton walked into the First Union Bank branch on Peters Creek Road at 9:45 a.m. Nov. 12 and slammed down a green ammunition box.

"This is a bomb; I want all that money," he told the teller.

After taking $3,200, the man placed the ammunition case on a stack of cardboard boxes before fleeing the bank. FBI agents and members of the State Police bomb disposal unit were called and found the container empty.

Hamilton pleaded guilty to bank robbery Friday, telling Judge James Turk that it didn't take long for him to realize his mistake.

State Trooper Steve Fijalkowski was near the Huckleberry Inn in Christiansburg at about 2:45 on the afternoon of the robbery when a man flagged down his patrol car.

The man approached the car and said, "`My name's David Hamilton, and I robbed a bank in Roanoke."

In his confession, according to an FBI affidavit, Hamilton said he was a crack addict who turned himself in so he could "turn his life around" and obtain drug rehabilitation.

Hamilton, of Gilmer Avenue, told police he had walked from the robbery scene to Christiansburg and had spent only $3 of the money, for a pack of cigarettes and a drink.

Hamilton, who will be sentenced May 17, could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

by CNB