Testimony is expected to continue in a Texarkana federal court this morning in the trial of a man accused of committing a string of armed robberies in Northeast Texas during November 2015.
Bobby Wayne Lance, 50, appeared clean-shaven Monday morning as a panel of prospective jurors filed into Texarkana's downtown federal building for jury selection before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III. The absence of Lance's distinctive mustache did not prevent three witnesses as identifying him as the man who wore hosiery over his face and pointed a gun at them on Nov. 8, 2015, during a holdup of the Movies 8 theater in Paris, Texas.
Former Movies 8 assistant manager Misti Nicholson testified under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross that she and two co-workers, Adrianna Kellogg and Brady Pierce, were performing end-of-the-day tasks when a man they thought was a last-minute popcorn-seeker walked through the main entrance that Sunday night. Nicholson said the man pointed a gun at her, ordered Kellogg and Pierce to the floor, and demanded money.
"She was giving him coins and he told her he wanted the cash," Kellogg testified. "He kept repeating himself that if she didn't hurry up he was going to shoot her."
Nicholson and Kellogg described the robber as white, wearing a plaid jacket and jeans, with a mustache and a scruffy, unshaven appearance. Pierce described the robber's jacket as solid brown. The theater employees put their assailant's height as between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet tall and his weight at about 200 pounds.
All three movie store employees described a small, silver revolver in terms a person unfamiliar with handguns might choose but all selected the same image when shown an array of photos of seven different handgun models by Paris police Lt. James Mazy. But when Ross showed Pierce an actual chrome, black-handled, snub-nosed revolver seized during a search of Lance's home in Avery, Texas, in late November 2015, Pierce testified that it was not the gun used in the theater robbery.
"It doesn't look as silver as the one in the robbery," Pierce said. "And it doesn't have any orange on it."
Ross asked Pierce if he is aware that some bullets are made with orange tips and asked Pierce if he recalls seeing bullets loaded into the gun's cylinder at the time of the robbery. Pierce could not recall seeing bullets.
"So if there was a bullet in that cylinder with an orange tip, could that have been what you saw," Ross asked.
On cross-examination by Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson, Pierce remained steadfast in his opinion that the gun shown to him in court was not the gun used in the robbery.
Nicholson testified that she contacted Paris police after seeing photos on Facebook taken from surveillance footage of robberies of a DeKalb, Texas, convenience store and a Scroggins, Texas, bank robbery. Nicholson said the robber in the Bowie County robbery of Carter's Store and RV Park in DeKalb, Texas, was wearing the same plaid jacket as the robber who pointed a gun at her at the movie theater and that the man wearing an orange hoodie in a video of the bank robbery in Franklin County had the same mannerisms and gun as her assailant.
Nicholson said she contacted Kellogg and Pierce and asked if they agreed the man in the surveillance images from the other robberies was the same person who robbed the theater, where there is no video security system. Nicholson contacted Paris police and informed them of her suspicion.
Nicholson, Pierce and Kellogg were separately interviewed by Lt. Mazy at the Paris police station and all agreed Lance is the man who robbed them. Harrelson questioned Mazy about the witness identifications, alluding to a defense of mistaken identity.
In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Wells told the jury the case "boils down to identity," and described it as a "whodunit."
Lance is accused of robbing the Lamar County theater on Nov. 8, 2015; of robbing Carter's Store in Bowie County on Nov. 14, 2015; and of robbing the Franklin County bank on Nov. 17, 2015. Lance is also accused of carjacking in the armed theft of the bank manager's Ford F-150 pickup the same day as the bank robbery.
Wells told the jury that after photos of the Carter's Store robbery and the bank robbery began to circulate in the media, tips that a Red River County man seen working with logging crews in the area was the same man, began to come in to law enforcement. In late November 2015, members of the Bowie County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Red River County Sheriff's Office and Franklin County Sheriff's Office searched the home where Lance was living with his brother in Avery, Texas.
Wells said that while looking for clothing pictured in surveillance photos, investigators found two bags of cash in the dryer containing "bait bills" from the bank holdup, a gun appearing identical to the one used in the robberies, pantyhose, and a newspaper on a counter open to an article about the robberies.
"Mr. Lance's house is smack dab in the middle of everything," Wells said while showing the jury a map depicting the sites of the robberies.
Harrelson compared Wells' opening statement to a movie trailer.
"The preview always looks awesome," Harrelson said, after telling the jury it is appropriate Lance's trial begins with testmony from movie theater staff.
Harrelson urged the jury to pay close attention to details provided by witnesses and where those details conflict. Harrelson asked the jury to consider that witnesses might be motivated to testify a certain way by a desire to see someone pay for a crime or a willingness to help law enforcement.
Each of the three robberies is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and the carjacking is punishable by up to 15 years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Locker said at an earlier hearing in the case. Four other counts listed in Lance's eight-count indictment allege carrying a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Locker said the total sentences for the firearm counts could mean up to 82 years in federal prison in addition to the sentences Lance could receive for the underlying robberies.
Testimony is expected to continue this morning with the trial wrapping up Thursday or Friday. Lance has been in federal custody since his arrest in November 2015. If found guilty of any of the counts facing him, Lance will be formally sentenced before Schroeder at a later date.