Mother Says Robber Held Gun on Child

A mother broke down in tears as she described Wednesday how an armed bank robber lifted her 7-year-old daughter’s ponytail, placed a gun to the girl’s head and warned that he would shoot her if bank employees didn’t cooperate with him.

The robber said he was going to count to three and, if bank tellers didn’t identify themselves, he would pull the trigger of a large gun that was resting on the frightened girl’s head, said Tamara Lee Megalo of Riverside.

“I could only close my eyes,” Megalo said between deep sobs. “I announced to myself that I was going to lose a child. I was waiting for him to blow her brains all over my face.”

The robber and two female accomplices eventually fled the Home Savings of America branch in Riverside with $16,000, leaving unhurt the 7-year-old girl and others present in the bank.

Megalo recalled the July 30, 1996 robbery during gripping testimony in the trial of 20-year-old Maurice Sampson, who allegedly robbed four Southland banks during a monthlong crime spree last year. He is on trial for all four robberies.

In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Atty. John C. Rayburn Jr. said Sampson and a crew of accomplices endangered the lives of bank tellers and customers when they forcibly took over the four banks. Sampson was arrested Aug. 28, the same day he allegedly robbed a Home Savings branch in Seal Beach of $15,000 and shot at a pursuing Seal Beach motorcycle officer, Rayburn said.

If convicted, Sampson, of Long Beach, faces up to 65 years in prison.

One of his attorneys, Deputy U.S. Public Defender Sylvia Torres-Guillen, said her client was being prosecuted wrongfully, noting that several witnesses had described the robber as shorter than Sampson, who is 6 feet, 3 inches tall.

“There is nothing more tragic than the tragedy of convicting the wrong person,” Torres-Guillen said.

Megalo was the first witness called to testify before a jury and U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor.

She recalled how she and her three young children--ages 7, 9 and 13--were at the bank when she heard a loud voice say: “This is a robbery. Get down.”

Megalo said she thought it was a bad joke, but she saw a robber cock his gun, demanding to know who worked there.

Megalo said the robber yelled out, “Don’t make me shoot these kids,” as he approached her children.

When no one replied, the robber placed the gun to the head of her 7-year-old, who is also named Tamara.

But a teller got up and tossed over keys to her cash drawers, causing the robber to back away from the child, Megalo said. But the robber told one of his female accomplices that “if he didn’t get the money, to shoot that kid,” pointing to the 7-year-old child, Megalo said.

Megalo said she then covered her daughter with her body and tried to comfort her by repeating, “It’s OK, baby girl, it’s OK, baby girl.”

Megalo said she heard a female robber say in an “ecstatic” voice, before running out of the bank, that “yeah, we got hundreds.”

“They were well pleased,” Megalo said, wiping away the tears that flowed down her cheeks. But “they were angry and violent and mean.”

In opening statements, Rayburn detailed how Sampson, a reputed member of the 87th Street Crips, and accomplices allegedly robbed two banks in San Gabriel and Long Beach of $10,000 within three weeks of the Riverside robbery.

Sampson’s spree ended after the Seal Beach robbery on Aug. 28, the prosecutor said.

Rayburn said Sampson and three other robbers were caught only because a dye pack--which looks like a stack of bills but is actually a device that contains red dye and tear gas--exploded in their vehicle, forcing the robber to return to the getaway vehicle, which was seen leaving the bank.

The getaway vehicle was followed by a Seal Beach officer who was fired upon by the robber, Rayburn said.

Rayburn said he will play for the jury a videotaped confession that Sampson provided to Seal Beach detectives.

In her opening statement, defense attorney Torres-Guillen said her client doesn’t deny being at the Seal Beach bank but never entered the building, she said.

Sampson also denied that he shot at the officer.

Sampson’s alleged confession was “produced, directed and written” by the police, the defense lawyer said.

“They have the wrong guy,” Torres-Guillen insisted, noting that several witnesses had identified the robber as someone 5 feet, 7 inches tall.

The trial continues today.