Nightclub owner found guilty of '12 LR bank robbery

Friday, June 6, 2014

A Little Rock woman who claimed to be the victim of mistaken identify was convicted Wednesday of being the female bandit who pepper-sprayed a bank clerk during a December 2012 armed robbery.

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Angela Schuncey Richardson was sentenced to 21 years in prison by an eight-woman, four-man jury that deliberated less than two hours after a two-day trial before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.

The 43-year-old nightclub owner was found guilty of aggravated robbery and theft. She'll have to serve about 12 years before she's eligible for parole.

Richardson said she was with relatives when the Metropolitan National Bank on Cantrell Road in Little Rock was robbed by a man with a gun and a woman who pepper-sprayed a teller and escaped with about $2,000.

Her lawyers, Jessica Coleman and Keri Sims, said the woman robber was a cross-dressing man.

The female robber's face was seen briefly in the bank-surveillance video, but that fleeting glance at a camera was captured in a still photograph by police. The defense and prosecution clashed over whether the picture was Richardson.

"This picture looks like a man," Coleman said in her closing statement. "Angela Richardson was not in that bank on that day."

While cross-examining Richardson, deputy prosecutor Kim Davis held the photo up to the woman's face and asked jurors whether Richardson shared the robber's distinctive gapped teeth.

"That is not me," Richardson told the jurors. "That doesn't look anything like me."

The bank teller, Daniel Harris, picked Richardson out of a photographic lineup and testified that he thought the woman robber was wearing a wig. Getting sprayed in the face was the worst pain he's ever suffered, Harris told jurors. The robber sprayed him even though he was following her commands to turn over the money, he said.

Also identifying Richardson as the robber was her co-defendant, 25-year-old Jerry Lamar "Marty" Johnson Jr., who testified that the holdup was Richardson's idea and that she had supplied him with a toy gun that he used. He said he'd worked as a bouncer for Richardson at her Club Good Times on Asher Avenue.

He said he'd gotten $400 from the holdup, but he gave $200 back to Richardson, who said the money would be used for a lawyer "just in case."

In exchange for his cooperation, Johnson was allowed to plead guilty to robbery, reduced from aggravated robbery, and felon in possession of a firearm with a 35-year prison sentence that will keep him behind bars for at least eight years.

Joseph Smith of Louisiana, a close friend of Johnson's, testified that he'd also been a bouncer at Club Good Times and that Richardson had been looking for someone from club security to help her rob a bank the weekend before the Metropolitan holdup. He said he recognized her on the surveillance video.

Testifying on Richardson's behalf was her sister, Monique Norwood, who said Richardson had been with Norwood's teenage son and elementary-age daughter at the time of the bank robbery. The son, Adrein Cooper, confirmed that account, saying Richardson was with them until late afternoon.

In closing arguments, deputy prosecutor Martinque Parker told jurors none of the prosecution's witnesses had a reason to lie about Richardson.

But all of Richardson's witnesses -- connected to her by love, blood or employment -- had a motive to cover up for the defendant, Parker said.

"She's going to say or do anything within her power to get you guys to find her not guilty," the deputy prosecutor said.

The Metropolitan holdup wasn't the first time Richardson was accused of a bank robbery. She was acquitted of a 2003 bank robbery, also saying she was mistakenly identified.

Court records show she was suspected, but never charged, of being a pepper-spraying woman robber who worked with a male accomplice to hold up another Cantrell Road bank in 2003.

Metro on 06/06/2014