p>Crim 410 Exercise:
On today’s date at 8:20 AM you are working as a Robbery Detective in London County Virginia.
The Radio dispatcher notifies you to respond to bank robbery of the 1st National Bank of Virginia in Columbia Virginia, a mid-sized city in your county. When you arrive at the scene, uniformed officers are putting up crime scene tape around the Bank lobby. The Bank is located in a Large Shopping Mall and a large crowd of civilian onlookers are standing outside the tape. The main first responder, Officer Bennett approaches you and lets you know that 3 men dressed in grey overalls and rubber masks came into the bank about 20 minutes ago and shot off some bullets from AK 47 style assault rifles into the ceiling of the bank. One of the robbers, who acted like the leader jumped up on the branch manager’s desk and shouted out orders for everyone to get down, then he told one of his men to take the woman branch manager into the secure area behind the counter, by way of a locked door. The man with the branch manager was to get the money from all six teller “cages.” The man yelled to the branch manager that he would kill her if she gave him any exploding dye packs or alarm packets. The branch manager complied and gave him access to the teller’s cages she also gave him access to the secure vault area, which was accessed by an electronic badge worn on her neck. The other robber stood guard over the customers and other employees who were told to lie down on the floor by the robber standing on the branch managers desk. One of the tellers, Jeanine Tanner begins to argue with the stick up man and tried to refuse to let the robber inside her teller cage. The robber pushed her against the wall and slammed his fist into her jar, knocking her down and unconscious. Officer Bennett says she is being attended to by an Emergency Medical technician at the scene. They should transport her to the hospital in the next few minutes. Officer Bennett then reports that he has put out a county wide BOLO for 3 men in grey coveralls, but since there is no vehicle or further description it will be necessary to add to the BOLO once all the witnesses are interviewed. He also said he had officers trying to trace the exit route of the robbers, because they left the bank and went South into the main part of the Mall.
Simultaneous to this first responder’s report three crime scene technicians arrive on the scene. The senior crime scene technician is Officer Naomi Janson. She and her team begin processing the crime scene, based on the information you and Officer Bennett provide.
Within 15 minutes of your arrival at the scene Officer Bennett advises that one of his officers discovered that the robbers were observed leaving the south side parking lot in a silver Ford Van with Virginia license AZB 4589. Officer Bennett immediately adds the new information to the BOLO. The radio dispatcher relays that the van was reported stolen by the owner at 7:15 AM. The van was stolen from an open parking lot in a large apartment complex east of Columbia City.
Quiz: 1) Name fifteen supply items, and crime scene equipment tools which should be in their crime scene truck that will be used in recording and processing this crime scene.
2) What is the immediate priority presented by this scenario?
As the lead investigator on this case you have 3 other detectives assigned to work with you on this case.
3) How would you detail your team to conduct interviews with the victim/witnesses ?
Your Sherriff’s department has joint jurisdiction with the FBI on this case and you can expect a group of at least 4 FBI Agents to join your investigation within the next 30 to 40 minutes. Your experience with the FBI office in these kinds of cases has been positive. You are in telephonic contact with the lead FBI agent investigator (Jason Donnelly) who is enroute from the FBI office in Washington DC. Jurisdictionally the FBI will lend investigative help and financial support for witness protection, and confidential source payments. The crime scene work is done by your department with forensic examinations done by the State of Virginia Forensic Labs. When and if a subject is identified a decision is made by you and SA Donnelly whether to charge armed robbery, assault, and other state offenses or a federal bank robbery charge with local assault offenses as underlying offenses. The decision is usually based on the location of the subject or subjects. Local criminals are charged locally, Criminals from other jurisdictions may be charged federally, especially if they are out of State. Generally the local charges appear to give more time in jail, but since there is no parole in the federal system it is likely that the subjects if convicted will actually do more time in the federal system.
The following is a list of ten witnesses, who have been sequestered in conference room with a uniform officer who has been advised to keep the witnesses from discussing the robbery. The first person on the list is Jeanine Tanner, who is with the EMT and will presently depart with the ambulance.
2) Mary Thrush-Branch Manager
3) Toni Cardinale-Teller
4)Vera Robinette-Teller
5)Rachel Swann-Teller
6)Jonathon Khann-Teller
7) Lucritia Smith-Customer
8) Barbara Jones-Customer
9) Donna Forman-Auditor/Bank Security VP (Retired State Police Officer) (Not present when the robbery occurred.)
Patrol Officer Danner, who was with the team of uniformed officers working the initial response provided you with the names Gabriel Denton and his wife Monique Denton as two additional witnesses from their Florist shop near the South Side entrance of the Mall as having observed the bank robbers exit the parking lot in silver Ford Van with Virginia license AZB 4589.
4)How would you break down interviews of the witnesses? Is there a need to conduct a neighborhood investigation. Should the Dentons’ be re-interviewed? What are your priorities?
5) Provide a detailed list of physical evidence you would expect to be recovered by your crime scene team.
As the Crime Scene team is finishing their work at the scene and one of the team members was assigned to gather evidence from Jeanine Tanner and the EMTs responsible for her care Officer Naomi Janson provides her analysis of the crime scene to you as the lead investigator. She reports that she photographed and recovered an otherwise latent dust imbedded footprint from the desk of the bank manager. Quiz Question 6) How can she provide you with the name of shoe and the size of the Shoe?
She advised that they recovered fingerprints from locations that may have only been touched by the robbers, but she could not be sure if the robbers all wore gloves. 7) To which data bases would Officer Janson submit the recovered Latent fingerprints? She was able to review the surveillance tape of the robbery in progress and was able to obtain small representative prints of the three robbers. They all looked to be similar body types. The one on the Manger’s desk may have been a few inches taller than the others and they all appeared to be white males based on the best views of the small amount of exposed skin that could be observed.
You ask FBI Special Agent Donnelly if he can dispatch Two of his team of 4 agents to the residence of the owner of the Van to get details about when the theft could have occurred. You also warn him that if the robbers stole the van from that location they may be returning close by to pick up a stashed vehicle. You ask first officer on the scene to make sure the BOLO warns all of the officers that the subjects are Armed and Extremely dangerous.
You and newest member of your investigative team begin an interview of the Bank Branch Manager, Mary Thrush. Almost immediately she becomes very nervous and explains that she fully and quickly complied with the Robber’s demand to be given access to the secure area behind the teller’s cage with further access to the vault. She states that this procedure of cooperation was “drilled into her.” At the security classes provided by the Bank. You become suspicious of her because she offers this explanation, before you even ask about it. You then calm her down and ask her to walk you through the whole event at least three times.
After your interview with Thrush you learn that SA Connelly and two FBI agents have arrived. You provide them with a list of all of the tellers and the witnesses on the scene. Two of your Detectives’ team have already completed interviews of the two customers and one of the tellers. You ask your three detectives to team up with the two FBI agents and complete the remaining interviews. You ask SA Connelly to join you on the interview with the Security Chief Donna Foreman. 8) What questions should be priorities for the interview with Forman?
Your team wraps up the interviews at the Bank and you send two teams of investigators to follow up on interviews with potential witness identified by the patrol officers who conducted the neighborhood investigation in the mall. The Patrol officers were able to verify the robbers exited the mall to the south side parking lot and no other surveillance film has been located depicting them leaving the mall.
Crime scene Officer Janson advises you that the lead robber who jumped on the desk was probably wearing size thirteen Red wing Moc style Boots. She further states there is a gash from some sharp metal object that is visible on the print at the three o’clock location on the right side of right shoe. There also maybe a visible defect on the heal tread design at the 6 o’clock position.
FBI agent Tanya Radisson calls into your counterpart SA Connelly and advises that they located the getaway vehicle. She asks for help from the crime scene unit in processing it at the scene. She says there are a number of used napkins and paper wrappings left in the back floorboard of the van. She also advised that the van was located across the street from a convenience store and they are negotiating with the store manager to review the security tape. SA Radisson says the surveillance covers the whole parking lot and is real good quality. The used napkins in the van match the kind of napkins used in the food service area of the store.
Your team has wrapped up all of the interviews and completed the neighborhood investigation so you respond with two FBI agents, Two detectives, and the Crime Scene unit to the Convenience store approximately two miles from the bank. You realize that the convenience store is also located on the same block as the Apartment complex from where the getaway vehicle, the silver Ford Van was reported stolen early that morning. As you and your team arrives at the store you see SA Raddison and a crime scene technician who completed his evidence gathering task at the hospital with Ms. Tanner working with a person who appears to be the manager of the store. They are printing out prints from the security equipment. The Evidence Tech is also copying a digital file from the computer system attached to the equipment. 9) What steps should the Evidence tech be taking to establish a chain of custody for the recording?
SA Raddison leaves the store and responds to you and SA Connelly with the video prints. The prints depict two white men in grey coveralls parking a late model Blue Ford Truck with a Crew Cab. The truck has Virginia license TLY5438. You run the tag over the radio and the dispatcher responds immediately that the vehicle is a 2012 Ford Truck registered to James Winston 234 Denham Ln. Columbia City. Winston has no criminal record and no outstanding warrants. He has a Virginia driver’s license that was just issued two months ago. He is described as White male 6’ 2” inches tall weighing 220 lbs. That description matches the driver of the truck and it also matches the leader of the bank robbers from the Bank. Another surveillance photograph depicts a third white male in coveralls parking the stolen van across the street from the store. He joins the other three in the store, where they observed buying breakfast sandwiches and coffee. The time stamp on the images is between 6:50 AM and 6:59 AM. The parking lot surveillance camera then depicts the three men enter the Ford Van, getaway vehicle and leave the neighborhood at 7:00 AM. At 9:10 AM the Van returns to the same parking spot across the street from the store and the three men each carrying black duffle bags emerge from the van and run to the Ford Crew Cab pick-up truck and immediately leave the parking lot of the convenience store.
The radio dispatcher says she will email a DMV photograph of Winston to you on your smart phone. Unfortunately, the description matches about 1/5 of the population of Columbia City . The truck was issued its tags two months ago. It was previously registered to Melanie Danzig of Kill Devil Hills North Carolina. She also has no criminal record and no warrants in NCIC. You then ask Officer Janson to collect the evidence in the stolen Van and take the van to the evidence control parking lot for further processing. She says she will gather up all of the paper products and loose materials in the van including the contents of the ash trays and process them as soon as possible. She says she will work on the material back at her office laboratory. 10) What kind of evidence can she expect to “process” these materials for? And what fingerprint processing can be done on paper and cigarette butts?
11)Regarding the Paper products, what is this material defined as for fingerprint processing?
SA Raddison is a slight built black female who is driving a late model Honda Pilot, which is very unlike any police vehicle immediately available on the scene you tell your team to move to the neighborhood around Denham Lane and you ask SA Raddison if she can do a discreet “drive by” of 234 Denham to try and locate the truck. Within moments she is driving in the neighborhood and reports over the radio that there are no vehicles at the residence and there does not appear to be anyone in the house. (She also calls out the following description of the house. 234 Denham is white and gray trim 1 story ranch style house with 3 bedrooms on a cul de sac at the end of Denham Lane one block from 2nd Street Columbia City.) She provides you and SA Connelly the telephone number from a Rental sign on the front yard of the house and tells you the rental company is something called Denham Realty. She then settles into a surveillance location that is discreet in case she observes any activity at the house.
You call the number provided and it is answered by woman, Janet Dinardo who identifies herself and the “President” of Denham Realty. You obtain an address from her so you can talk to her in person and it turns out she is just up the street and around the corner from 234 Denham Lane.
You go to the address provided park in a secure location and walk to the address which turns out to be another residence. You meet Mrs. Dinardo and immediately identify yourself and inform her that you are conducting an investigation in a serious criminal matter and you want her discretion about the questions you ask. She explains that she rents a number of small houses in the neighborhood and is used to police enquiries about some of her tenants. You ask who is renting 234 Denham Lane and she says a man name James Winston, but she doesn’t believe that is his real name. He paid 3 months’ rent for the house two months ago and it was supposed to be for he and his wife Melanie, but she never showed up. Every time she speaks to him he can never remember his name, She always asks him questions like “Mr. Winston, how is the pluming working for you and your roommates and it takes him a moment to realize she is talking to him.” He is also very secretive and refuses to tell her what kind of work he does. Almost immediately 2 other men moved in with him. She doesn’t think there is anything “sexual” going on between them. They are all very “rough” characters. “The place is filled with all kinds of guns. They tell her they are passionate about hunting and smile and laugh about hunting in a weird way. At first she thought they might be ex military, but they just seem too hard edged for that.” You ask, “does she know where they are now? She says, “I think they went to the beach in North Carolina or Virginia Beach.” You ask, “why those beaches” and she says “they are always talking about being from there. She tells you, they left about a half hour ago while she was over at the neighboring house checking on the plumbing, when they came home from “work” and unloaded their truck of all sorts of stuff and then they put some coolers in the back of their truck. “They all drink a lot of beer and they changed into short and t-shirts and they were smiling and laughing and said they had to go to beach to celebrate.” You then ask if they had their guns in the truck? She says, “not sure it seems like they always have them even when they go to work, because she saw the carrying cases they were in when they came home, but they didn’t have the cases with them when they left. You ask Mrs. Dinardo if she has any original paperwork on when they rented the house and she produces a copy of the rental agreement for 6 months. You then ask if she didn’t believe Winston’s real name was Winston did she ever check him out before she rented to him and she says. “Frankly, I get a lot of shaky characters renting my houses, I have found it best not to make too many enquiries. They paid 3 months in advance and they paid in cash, that was good enough for me.”
What is the next step? And if you know the next step produce the document necessary.
How would you treat the information provided by Mrs. Dinardo and your other witnesses in this case. Remember they have no criminal records and are apparently an upstanding citizens?
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