Robber: Ex had role in bank job
WAYNESBURG – Amanda Black, who robbed a Rogersville bank in 2013, testified in court Wednesday her ex-girlfriend, Jamie Burnfield, plotted and conspired with her on the bank heist.
But Burnfield’s defense attorney, Almon Burke Jr., suggested the accomplice in the heist could have been Black’s sister, Fallon, not his client. Burke also raised questions about Amanda Black’s credibility on the stand.
“Isn’t it true that it was you and your sister, Fallon, that plotted to rob a bank?” he said during a testy exchange between himself and Amanda. “Isn’t it true that you and Fallon were the ones scraping for money and that it was your silver car that was seen parked near the bank?”
Amanda denied her sister was a part of the conspiracy and testified Burnfield was her getaway driver for the March 19, 2013, robbery.
Burnfield, 38, of 307 Prison Road, Waynesburg, was charged last year with conspiring to commit robbery of the Rogersville branch of Community Bank with Amanda Black, 26, of Waynesburg.
Amanda pleaded guilty last year to robbing the bank and was sentenced to 1 to 7 years in prison. As part of her plea agreement, she also had to testify against Burnfield in this trial.
Amanda testified two weeks before the robbery she and Burnfield drove to the bank to “scope it out.” She said Burnfield entered the bank to see if there were any security guards, but picked up some pamphlets to seem inconspicuous. Amanda said she stayed overnight at Burnfield’s house the day before the robbery.
“Her parents didn’t want me living there because I was using drugs,” Amanda said. “We were still seeing each other. I wasn’t living there, technically I wasn’t allowed to, but I still went there.”
Amanda said that the day of the robbery she and Burnfield went to a thrift shop to purchase dark clothing, before going to Walmart to purchase a pellet gun.
“She went in with me and purchased the clothes,” Amanda said, adding that Burnfield purchased the pellet gun.
Burke tried to discredit Amanda’s testimony by pointing out inconsistent statements made to police. He said that in police transcripts of a 2015 interview with Amanda, she told police that she and Burnfield’s first stop that day was Walmart and that Amanda had purchased the gun, not Burnfield. But Amanda denied she ever told police that.
“I don’t remember saying that I purchased the gun,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t have money to purchase a gun.”
Amanda testified that Burnfield drove her silver GrandAm to a baseball field in Rogersville and wrote the note demanding cash before driving to a church in Rogersville to park.
“She waited there while I went into the bank,” Amanda said.
Police said Burnfield admitted writing a note that Black gave to a bank teller during the robbery, but Burnfield told police that she did not know the note was going to be used for a robbery. Police also said Burnfield owned, at the time, the silver Pontiac GrandAm one witness saw near the bank the day of the robbery.
Burke questioned whether the silver car seen that day could have been Amanda’s own silver Nissan, instead of a GrandAm.
Amanda said that after the robbery, she and Burnfield drove to West Virginia for a few hours before returning to Waynesburg later the same evening.
“We went back to her house and she got ahold of somebody and we got heroin,” Amanda said.
Burke pointed out that police transcripts did not include Amanda’s testimony about she and Burnfield “scoping out” the bank two weeks before. He also noted in the transcripts, Amanda told police that Burnfield was an alcoholic, but that she didn’t do drugs.
“I lied about a lot of things in the beginning,” Amanda said.
An acquaintance of Amanda’s, Tiffany Hubbs, 26, testified Amanda had confessed to her that she and Burnfield robbed a bank.
“We stayed up talking about bad things we had done,” she said. “She said she got $30,000 from the bank and that she and Burnfield spent it all on drugs.”
Hubbs said that after a few months, she went to the police with the information. The amount of money taken in the heist was later determined to be $3,275, much less than her claim.
Burke asked Hubbs what Amanda’s reputation in the community was, to which Hubbs replied, “She’s known for lying and stealing.”
Testimony in the trial before Greene County Judge Louis Dayich is expected to continue today.