THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210835
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 48 lines
Enough circumstantial evidence exists to hold Jermaine Jerrell Sims without bond in connection with a Jan. 30 bank robbery in which a teller was killed, a federal magistrate ruled Thursday.
Prosecutors believe Sims was one of two men who burst into a NationsBank branch on the east side of Richmond and began shooting. Sims was arrested Feb. 11 as he went to a Richmond welfare office to collect food stamps.
U.S. Magistrate James E. Bradberry ordered Sims' case sent to a federal grand jury. He said it would be ``an act of irresponsibility'' to release Sims because of the violent nature of the crime.
Sims, who faces a federal bank robbery charge, was arrested after a Richmond gun dealer told police that Sims had bought the kind of weapons used in the robbery just three days before it occurred.
FBI Agent H. Wayne Waddell testified Thursday that ammunition found at the crime scene matched ammunition Sims had bought from the gun dealer.
Waddell said the ammunition was rare because the body of the bullet casing didn't match the color of the bullet. He said it may have been made in Malaysia - it was stamped ``MAL'' - especially for the kind of AR-15 semi-automatic weapon Sims had bought.
The two robbers sprayed the inside of the bank with fire from semi-automatic weapons and waged a brief gunbattle with police. They ran out the front door and escaped through Richmond National Cemetery.
Teller Lori Ann Robinson, 23, died of a bullet wound to the chest, and three other people inside the bank were shot. Among these was a security guard who shot back at the robbers, police said.
The second suspect remained at large Thursday.
Waddell testified that $3,000, a .38-caliber handgun, a felt hat like the ones worn by the men in the robbery and two containers of lighter fluid - one bearing Sims' fingerprint - were found near the 5 1/2-foot tall wall around the cemetery, which the suspects scaled during their escape.
Waddell said $10,000 was still missing, including some ``baited bills'' with recorded serial numbers.
The two weapons purchased by Sims were found days later under insulation in the attic of a nearby residence in the 5200 block of Art Ave., where the suspects apparently hid from police. Residents of the home reported the break-in and said checks, liquor, orange juice and jewelry was missing.
KEYWORDS: BANK ROBBERY ARREST