Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991 TAG: 9103080624
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"The severity of the penalties against you might encourage desperate acts," U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad told Thomas William Robinson and Tina Marie O'Meara.
Robinson and O'Meara - who were married, divorced and now consider themselves common-law husband and wife - were arrested last Friday in connection with a string of six bank robberies in Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg that began Jan. 25.
Robinson, 36, of Pawleys Island, S.C., has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions on an estimated 17 armed robberies. He has tried three times to escape from state and local jails.
In one of those attempts - from the Botetourt Correctional Unit - O'Meara assisted him.
John Terry, an FBI agent, testified Thursday that O'Meara tried to smuggle a gun to Robinson at the Botetourt prison.
The foiled attempt brought O'Meara two years in state prison.
That incident, in part, prompted the government to request Thursday that the two be detained without bond.
Robinson's "history is outrageous," Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald said. "He is exactly the sort of person that pre-trial detention was designed for. [O'Meara's] history is not as outrageous, but this is a situation of deja vu."
In granting the government's motion for detention, Conrad noted the apparent influence Robinson has over O'Meara.
"That might encourage irrational acts if they were released," he said.
Robinson; O'Meara, 33, of Salem; and Jerry Lee Brewer, 35, of Lynchburg face federal charges of conspiring to commit bank robbery.
Brewer asked that his Thursday bond hearing be postponed; his status will not be determined until next week.
The three are charged with conspiring to rob the CorEast Savings Bank off Virginia 419 in Southwest Roanoke County.
The branch was robbed Feb. 25 by two men wearing ski masks and brandishing pistols. Later that afternoon, two men wearing ski masks robbed a Central Fidelity Bank branch in Lynchburg.
Court testimony Thursday revealed that Robinson, O'Meara and Brewer also face federal charges of conspiring to rob a bank in Greensboro, N.C., last Friday and state charges of robbing the Red Lobster restaurant on Franklin Road in Roanoke on Jan. 12.
A federal affidavit stated that Robinson and Brewer told a government informant they were planning to rob a bank in Greensboro. FBI agents in North Carolina reported last Friday that the Piedmont State Bank in Greensboro was robbed of $9,600 that morning by two men who fit the descriptions of Robinson and Brewer.
Terry testified Thursday that when Robinson, Brewer and O'Meara were arrested that day, authorities found a "shopping list" in Robinson's car on letterhead stationery from a Greensboro motel with "wigs - 2" and "jackets - 2" printed on it.
In O'Meara's vehicle, authorities found a gym bag containing a pillowcase stuffed with "loot money," Terry said. Some of the money still was wrapped in paper strapping tape.
Authorities were able to link the three to the Red Lobster robbery after witnesses gave descriptions of two men who fit those of Robinson and Brewer, and from information that O'Meara was a former employee of the restaurant.
Police "felt from their investigation that it was an inside job," Terry said. "The robbers knew exactly where the money was kept."
Two armed men wearing ski masks entered the restaurant about 10 p.m. and demanded cash in front of at least six employees and customers, police said after the robbery. The men fled with an undetermined amount of cash.
A suspect was arrested days later, but charges against him since have been dropped, Terry testified Thursday.
by CNB