Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240207
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The suspect has been convicted of two previous bank robberies. He was sentenced to 64 years in prison for the second heist, in September 1982.
Wednesday, the Crestar Bank branch at Crossroads Mall on Hershberger Road Northwest was robbed shortly before 5 p.m. Lt. Ron Carlisle of the Roanoke Police Department said a man entered the bank, told a teller he had a gun and demanded that money be placed in a pouch he was carrying.
After the teller placed the pack of dye with the money, the man grabbed the pouch and fled in a car, police said.
A police officer who arrived at the bank minutes after the robbery relayed a witness's description of the robber and the vehicle.
Carlisle noticed a car matching the description as it made a left turn from Hollins Road onto Mason Mill Road Northeast. The car accelerated but ran into traffic on 13th Street Northeast near Orange Avenue, Carlisle said.
The suspect "got out of the car and put his hands on top when I told him to," Carlisle said, "and he never spoke a word."
Carlisle said dye was visible on the front seat of the car.
Arrested and charged with bank robbery was Danny Stewart Britts, 53, of the 200 block of Laurel Hill Drive in Vinton, police said.
Police found a toy pistol in Britts' coat pocket and the money on the floor of the car along with the exploded dye pack. Britts was sentenced to five years in prison for robbing the Parkside Plaza branch of United Virginia Bank in 1977.
He was convicted of robbing the Jamison Avenue Southeast branch of the Colonial American National Bank in September 1982. Roanoke Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue sentenced him to 64 years in prison; there was no official explanation Wednesday for why he was released early.
Wednesday's robbery of the Crestar branch was the second at the bank in 10 months. It was robbed on May 27, when $17,354 was taken. Larry C. Robinson, a convicted felon out on parole, was found guilty by a federal jury in October.
Police did not disclose the amount of money involved in Wednesday's robbery.
by CNB