Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 18, 1994 TAG: 9405180079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This is the most untypical case I've heard in a long time," U.S. District Judge James Turk said before sentencing David Hamilton to three years and two months in prison.
Federal guidelines recommend that Hamilton be imprisoned 46 to 57 months. But Turk sentenced him below those guidelines because he turned himself in and cooperated with the police.
"I think he's basically a good person," Turk said.
The Gilmer Avenue Northwest man walked into the First Union branch 2657 Peters Creek Road N.W. at 9:45 a.m. Nov. 12 and slammed down a green ammunition box.
"This is a bomb; I want all that money," Hamilton told teller Sarah McKnight.
After taking $3,200, the man placed the ammunition case on a stack of cardboard boxes before fleeing the bank. FBI agents and State Police were called and found the container empty.
Shortly after leaving the bank, Hamilton, 43, parked his car and began to walk.
In emotional, sometimes tearful testimony Tuesday, he told Turk it didn't take long to realize he had made a mistake.
"The money became a burden," he said. "I didn't want it, but I didn't know what to do with it. My heart was being torn out of me."
Hamilton said he first walked to his mother's grave and then set out south on U.S. 11.
State Trooper Steve Fijalkowski was near the Huckleberry Inn in Christiansburg about 2:45 p.m. when a man flagged down his patrol car.
"My name is David Hamilton, and I robbed a bank in Roanoke," the man said.
Tom Eckert, the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted the case, questioned Hamilton's ability to walk more than 25 miles in five hours. "Are you sure you didn't get a ride?" he asked
"No sir," responded the small, gray-haired man. "On a good day, I can walk 50 miles."
Hamilton told Turk on Tuesday that he was a crack-cocaine addict who needed drug rehabilitation as well as counseling for depression.
"I was enslaved to the drug," he said, adding that he smoked crack several hours before robbing the bank.
McKnight, the First Union teller, was in court Tuesday and Hamilton apologized to her several times.
"I'm sorry for what I've done. I was a person that was very confused," he said between sobs. "I don't want you to think that I'm an animal or a bad person."
"That's OK, Mr. Hamilton, I forgive you," McKnight said.
Eckert urged Turk not to depart from the recommended federal guidelines. He cited Hamilton's previous criminal record that includes rape, abduction and robbery charges
Turk said he will suggest that Hamilton be housed at the federal prison in Butner, N.C., where he can be placed in an intensive drug-treatment program.
"This is not the end of my life, but the beginning," Hamilton said.
by CNB