Man Is Convicted of Bank Robbing Spree

A 20-year-old Long Beach man was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of robbing three Southland banks during a monthlong crime spree last year.

Maurice Sampson faces at least 45 years in federal prison after jurors returned guilty verdicts on seven of nine counts against him. U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor declared a mistrial on the two remaining counts after jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction.

“The jurors did their job,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Linda Oprian, one of the prosecutors in the case. “It was evident that they analyzed all of the evidence.”

During a trial that lasted two weeks, Oprian and Assistant U.S. Atty. John C. Rayburn Jr. contended that Sampson and a crew of accomplices endangered the lives of bank tellers and customers when they took over four banks from San Gabriel to Seal Beach. Their total loot was $41,000.

Sampson was arrested Aug. 28, the same day he robbed a Home Savings branch in Seal Beach of $15,000 and shot at a pursuing Seal Beach motorcycle officer, according to Rayburn.

Sampson admitted on the witness stand that he had robbed the Seal Beach bank and another Long Beach bank but denied that he participated in the armed take-over of two other banks in Riverside and San Gabriel.

Jurors, who deliberated for two days, asked Wednesday to see a videotape in which Sampson confessed to the Seal Beach robberies to police. The government contended that he also confessed to the San Gabriel robbery in a subsequent police interview.

Jurors also viewed still photographs captured by a hidden camera in the Riverside bank. But the pictures did not appear to convince the lone juror who voted not guilty to the two robbery counts relating to the Riverside robbery.

After jurors sent the judge a note announcing that they were deadlocked on those counts, Taylor asked prosecutors if there was any point in allowing the deliberations to continue. The judge noted that Sampson would qualify for a 45-year sentence on seven counts, compared with a 65-year sentence if he was convicted on all nine counts.

“That may be true, your honor,” Rayburn said, “but the victims from the first bank would not agree.”

Rayburn was referring to what he depicted as a brutal takeover of the Riverside bank. During the trial, a witness cried as she described 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.

Because she was lying on the floor, the woman did not see the face of the bank robber and could not identify him.

Sampson’s attorneys, Deputy Public Defenders Sylvia Torres-Guillen and Myra Sun, said they, too, were moved by the woman’s testimony but insisted that their client was not guilty.

In closing arguments, Sun said the government had not proved that Sampson committed the bank robberies in San Gabriel and Riverside.

Sampson will be sentenced on Nov. 3.