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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 1, 1995                   TAG: 9506010086
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POLITE BANDIT GETS 15 YEARS

Braze Gilmore Jr. was on parole for five previous bank robberies when he robbed three banks last winter. He didn't use a weapon; he wrote notes that he passed to tellers, asking them for money.

Gilmore told U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson at his trial in March that, after a teller at the bank he robbed Jan. 9 gave him $2,406, "she was about to give me more and I told her to quit, and I left.'' When another teller told him she had no more money, Gilmore said, "That's enough."

He also walked into a Crestar branch on Orange Avenue, where he had an account, and held up a teller who knew him.

Such conduct by a bank robber illustrates that Gilmore was depressed, his attorney said. Gilmore's wife left him right after Christmas, telling him she wouldn't come back unless he got money to take care of restitution for check-fraud charges against her, attorney David Walker said.

Gilmore, 39, had been on parole for more than a year and was working steadily before his wife left him.

Wilson sentenced him to 15 years and eight months in prison on Wednesday and ordered Gilmore to pay $5,082 in restitution to the banks, but imposed no fine.

Gilmore pleaded guilty to one charge of bank larceny and was found guilty of two counts of bank robbery after a trial in federal court in Roanoke in March. Bank robbery requires the use of intimidation; bank larceny doesn't.

Gilmore robbed the Crestar Cave Spring Corners branch Dec. 30 and a First Virginia Bank-Southwest branch on Virginia 419 Jan. 3.