Mar 8, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – The jury trial began Tuesday for a Waynesburg woman accused of driving the getaway car after her girlfriend robbed the Rogersville branch of Community Bank three years ago.

Jamie L. Burnfield, 38, of 307 Prison Road, was charged last year with conspiring to commit robbery with Amanda L. Black and writing the note handed to a cashier demanding cash.

Black, 25, of 224 Washington St., Waynesburg, pleaded guilty last year to robbing the bank and was sentenced to 1 to 7 years in prison. As part of her plea agreement, Black also was ordered to pay $3,275 in restitution to the bank and was ordered to testify against Burnfield in this trial.

Police said Black entered the bank on Route 21 at about 3:30 p.m. March 19, 2013, her face covered with a mask. She handed the teller a hand-written note, indicating it was an armed robbery, police said.

Jody Hughes, the teller who was handed the note, testified in court Tuesday she remembered seeing a person, completely covered in dark clothing and a hood, walk into the bank that day.

“I remember looking down and pulling the note towards me hoping that the person would forget about it,” Hughes said.

She said after the person walked out of the bank, the robber ran down an alley and turned right, but Hughes didn’t see what vehicle the robber was driving.

Dolores Cooke of Center Township testified she and her grandson were walking to a grocery store near the bank during the robbery and saw a silver Pontiac GrandAm parked nearby. She said the woman sitting behind the wheel, which police allege was Burnfield, had blonde hair in a ponytail, and at first, Cooke thought it was her granddaughter.

“My granddaughter has the same type of car and I thought that was her sitting in the car and maybe she just broke down,” she said in court Tuesday.

Police said Black got into a silver car driven by Burnfield, her on-again-off-again girlfriend at the time.

Police said Burnfield admitted to investigators about writing the note Black gave to a bank teller during the robbery, but Burnfield told police she did not know the note was going to be used for a robbery.

The note threatened an armed robbery and demanded the teller put money in a bag, according to a digital photo of the note presented in court Tuesday.

Police also said Burnfield owned the silver Pontiac GrandAm that Cooke saw near the bank the day of the robbery.

Black is expected to testify when testimony resumes this morning.