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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994                   TAG: 9407120019
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE MAN GUILTY OF NEW YEAR'S EVE ROBBERY

Issam Ahmad Otallah, 27, a high school dropout and former cook at Valley View Pancake House, was found guilty of three charges of robbery, one charge of malicious wounding and one charge of committing burglary while armed with a deadly weapon. Bedford County Sheriff's deputies led him out of the county courthouse in manacles following his sentencing.

Assistant Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Joseph G. Kuster said, "I think it's a good sentence. I think the judge recognized that this man [Otallah] represented a future danger ... due to the nature of his crimes."

In court testimony, Otallah said he fired two shots into the front door of a trailer in Goodview, blowing it off its hinges. He then fired a shot into the trailer's ceiling and ordered the homeowner, Johnny Rhoten, and Rhoten's two guests, Brian Tart and Chereen Boothe, to lie flat on their stomachs.

Otallah, who goes by the nickname "Mario," took $265 in cash from Tart, $100 in cash from Rhoten and a $300 coat and rings valued at $520 from Boothe. He then cut Rhoten's face from forehead to lip with a switchblade.

The former cook said he committed the crime because his girlfriend told him that Rhoten owed her money. Otallah admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and marijuana at the time of the incident.

Otallah was born in Indiana and spent much of his life in the Middle East. He has prior convictions for assault and battery, misdemeanor theft, accessory to burglary and attempting to intimidate a witness.