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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260612
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TENN. MAN GUILTY OF ROBBERY

A Tennessee man was convicted in U.S. District Court in Roanoke Wednesday for participating in the October 1988 robbery of a Sovran Bank branch in Roanoke that was foiled when a packet of dye exploded in a bag of money.

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.

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 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, she testified, was Hamilton.

One of the men pulled a gun and they ordered an employee behind a counter to fill a brown bag with money, several employees testified. Then the men asked for the keys to a red pickup truck on the bank parking lot.

Talbott, who was standing in the doorway with $7,065 in a bag, asked the truck owner to help him start the pickup. Before the owner could respond, a packet of red dye exploded in the bag.

Talbott dropped the money, jumped into the pickup with Hamilton, got it started and fled, witnesses testified.

by CNB