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Charges held for woman suspected in bank robbery

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WAYNESBURG – Charges against a Waynesburg woman police say conspired to rob the Rogersville branch of Community Bank March 19, 2013, were held to court Thursday by Magisterial District Judge Lou Dayich.

Jamie L. Burnfield, 38, of 307 Prison Road, is currently free on a $10,000 percentage bond on a charge of conspiring with another woman to commit robbery by demanding money from a financial institution.

Police said Burnfield admitted writing a note that was presented to a bank teller during the incident and owns a car fitting the description of one seen at the scene.

Testifying at Burnfield’s preliminary hearing, FBI Special Agent Michael Scott Nealon said he conducted two interviews with Burnfield regarding the robbery. Both took place at Burnfield’s residence in 2013.

Burnfield alleged Black came to her residence and requested she write a note as if she were going to commit a bank robbery, according to Nealon.

Nealon said Burnfield told him Black was her on-again-off-again girlfriend.

Black was not charged in the robbery.

“The second time I interviewed Jamie was on Sept. 26. I had a subpoena for handwriting samples,” Nealon said. “I gave her sheets of paper and instructed her on what to write. After we had gone through a majority of the papers, I compared them with a copy of the note used in the robbery and explained to her it was obvious to me that she wrote the (bank robbery) note.”

Nealon said he was no handwriting expert but it was clear to him who wrote it, so much so that he told Burnfield, “my kids can tell who wrote that note.”

“I paused and gave it to her to look at and she admitted she wrote the note,” Nealon said.

The criminal complaint indicates Burnfield told state police she wrote the note several months prior to the robbery. According to police, a person wearing a dark mask, sunglasses and dark blue-hooded sweatshirt entered the bank and handed a note to the teller, stating it was an armed robbery.

The robber said nothing to the teller and only pointed at the cash drawer.

Because the person’s face was covered, the teller could not say whether the person was male or female. After the teller handed over “bait money,” the person left the bank and crossed Route 21 toward Bank Street in Rogersville, police said.

A witness who was driving by on Route 21 at the time told police he saw a person wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and a mask get into the passenger seat of a silver or gray Pontiac Grand Am parked on Cherry Alley, police said. The car was driven by a woman with brown hair and blonde highlights.

Nealon said Black’s driver’s license picture is consistent with that description. He noted Burnfield drives a silver Grand Am and he saw the vehicle parked at her residence when he conducted the interviews.

Burnfield told state police she did not know if Black drove her car March 19 but noted her spare key was missing.

Police said Burnfield initially told them she couldn’t recall her whereabouts the day of the robbery, but later said she was at her parent’s house in the morning and ran errands with her father in the early afternoon. She said she never spoke with Black about the robbery.

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