Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007260549
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A 12-member jury took less than 30 minutes to find Tommy Hamilton guilty of federal charges of conspiracy to commit a robbery, committing a robbery and using a firearm during a robbery.
David Damico, Hamilton's attorney, argued that there was not enough evidence to show that his client was the man depicted in photographs taken by a bank surveillance camera. Enlarged photos displayed in court showed two men, one wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a fake beard and another wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a bandana over his mouth and nose.
But a bank customer positively identified Hamilton from the stand as one of two men who robbed the Sovran Bank at 2208 Melrose Ave. N.W. on Oct. 14, 1988.
Carolyn Waggoner testified that as she entered the bank's Orange Avenue entrance, she noticed two men "dressed as construction workers" in jeans and jean jackets. The shorter of the two - whom FBI agents identified as John Talbott, also of Tennessee - entered the bank in front of her. The other one, a taller man whom she testified was Hamilton, held the door open for her in what she thought was a gesture of politeness.
"After I got into the bank, I heard the short man shout, `This is a holdup,' " Waggoner testified. "I thought it was a joke, then I realized he had a gun in his hand. I saw the gun and became very scared. He asked everyone to get down on the floor and I did so."
Several bank customers and employees, including Waggoner, testified that the men ordered an employee behind a counter to fill a brown bag with money. They then asked for the keys to a red pickup truck on the bank parking lot. Hearing no response, Talbott shouted, "I'm not going to say it again," another bank customer testified.
Charles Williams, owner of the pickup, testified that he put the keys on the floor, which one of the men kicked away. The man, later determined to be Hamilton, then went to the parking lot, tried to start the pickup and couldn't.
"Evidently, he couldn't get it started," Williams said. "You have to shove the clutch in to turn on the ignition."
Talbott, who was standing in the doorway with $7,065 in a bag, then asked Williams to come out and help him start the pickup. Before Williams had a chance to get up, a packet of red dye - designed to foil robbers either by scaring them or rendering the money useless from the stain - exploded.
Talbott dropped the bag, jumped into the pickup with Hamilton, got it started and fled, witnesses testified. The two men abandoned the pickup behind a drugstore on Ninth Street Northwest, a few blocks from the bank.
Waggoner testified that she could identify Hamilton from their brief encounter in the bank entrance. Even though he'd been wearing a baseball cap pulled down over his forehead, she pointed to Hamilton when asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald who held the bank door open for her the day of the robbery.
Prosecutors are "asking you to convict this man based on a view of the lower part of his face," Damico told the jury in his closing argument. "I contend that she [Waggoner] did not get a good look at his face."
"It was a fluke encounter, a remarkable experience," Fitzgerald said. "That face stuck in her mind."
by CNB