Outburst Leads to Delay in Bank Robber’s Sentencing

Sentencing for a 20-year-old Long Beach man convicted of robbing three Southland banks over the course of one month was postponed Thursday to Sept. 3.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor delayed sentencing Maurice Sampson after Deputy Public Defender Sylvia Torres-Guillen moved to have the prosecution recused for a conflict of interest.

Prosecutors lost the ability to be impartial, Torres-Guillen argued, after Sampson directed an outburst toward them at the end of his trial.

Sampson yelled and swore at prosecutors after he was convicted for the August 1996 robbery spree, which included a Home Savings branch in Seal Beach.

In its sentencing recommendations to Taylor, the prosecution team said Sampson had made threats and that such behavior constituted obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors urged Taylor to consider Sampson’s outburst as one of several reasons for increasing his sentence. Sampson faces 45 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said the recommendations followed standard sentencing guidelines, but Torres-Guillen argued that the government was seeking to punish Sampson for personal reasons.

“They clearly feel they were personally threatened,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Atty John C. Rayburn Jr. countered that no conflict existed and called the defense motion a last-ditch effort to “sandbag” the prosecution.

Taylor gave Torres-Guillen three weeks to file a written motion with the court, and he allowed prosecutors until July 9 to respond.

A hearing on the motion to remove the prosecution is scheduled for July 30.

Sampson’s conviction will stand regardless of whether Rayburn and co-counsel Assistant U.S. Atty. Linda Oprian are recused and different attorneys are appointed to argue Sampson’s sentencing.