Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991 TAG: 9103130269
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 15-count indictment alleges that Thomas William Robinson, Tina Marie Payne O'Meara and Jerry Lee Brewer planned the robberies just before Robinson was released on parole from state prison last December.
The three were arrested in Lynchburg on March 1 in the parking lot of Brewer's apartment complex. Brewer and Robinson had with them more than $9,600 in cash, alleged to have been the proceeds of a bank robbery hours before in Greensboro, N.C.
The indictment specifically charges them with four of a string of six bank robberies in Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg. The trio also is charged with the robbery of banks in Greensboro and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and with robbing a Pizza Inn restaurant in Greensboro, a Red Lobster restaurant in Roanoke and a Pizza Hut restaurant in Greensboro.
In each of the alleged robberies, Robinson and Brewer are accused of acting as the gunmen. O'Meara's alleged participation is limited to driving Robinson and Brewer to the vicinity of five of the robbery locations. She is accused of actually taking part in the robbery of the Red Lobster on Franklin Road in Roanoke on Jan. 12.
The robberies - committed between Jan. 11 and March 1 - are believed to have netted $75,500.
The charges arose out of a cooperative investigation of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, the Lynchburg Police Department, the Roanoke City Police Department, the Roanoke County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lynchburg police investigators and FBI agents are examining accounts of other unsolved robberies in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. That investigation will determine whether additional charges should be brought, government prosecutors say.
Robinson, 36, of Pawleys Island, S.C., has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions on an estimated 17 armed robberies. He tried three times to escape from state and local jails. In one of those attempts - from the Botetourt Correctional Unit in 1976 - O'Meara assisted him.
The foiled attempt brought O'Meara - Robinson's common-law wife - two years in state prison.
Brewer, 35, of Lynchburg, was convicted in 1975 of raping, sodomizing and robbing two women. He was 17 years old when he was arrested, 18 when he was convicted.
Both Robinson and O'Meara, 33, of Salem, are being held without bond. Brewer's status will not be determined until a preliminary hearing, scheduled for Thursday.
Brewer faces a maximum 100 years in prison, a fine of $1 million or both, if convicted on all counts. O'Meara could face a total of 105 years in prison, a fine of $1.25 million or both.
Robinson faces the stiffest penalty of the three. If convicted on all counts, he could get 105 years in prison for his involvement in the robberies.
He faces an additional mandatory minimum sentence of five years for each instance he is alleged to have carried a firearm during a robbery and a minimum of 15 years on each of five counts that allege he possessed a firearm after being convicted of three violent felonies.
That means Robinson faces about 100 years of mandatory prison time to be served after the sentence he receives, if any, for the robberies themselves, government prosecutors say.
The trio also faces federal charges in the Middle District of North Carolina for the March 1 robbery of the Greensboro bank.
by CNB