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Once Brazen Bank Robber Meekly Pleads Guilty

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2009

TAMPA - Jeffrey Gordon Merritt used a lunch bag and a BB pistol he bought for $30 from Wal-Mart to rob four banks in four months.

"Let's just get this over with," he told a teller at Andersen Bank in Palm Harbor on Sept. 16.

Waving the BB gun, modified to look like a Glock handgun, Merritt said, "You have one minute to give me all the money. Don't touch the alarms or I'll kill you…I'm not kidding. I will kill you."

As the nervous clerk fumbled with her keys to open the drawer, Merritt threatened her again. "I'll start shooting this place. I don't care."

The bravado was gone today as Merritt appeared before a federal court judge and admitted what he had done.

Merritt told U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara he didn't know why he robbed the banks. All his life, he said, he wanted children and didn't think he could have them. Now, he said, he has four children, ages 5 and under. "I prayed all my life to have children," he said. "Now I have them and I have thrown that all away."

Lazzara said he didn't understand what the children had to do with robbing banks, but that will be explored further when Merrit, 44, is sentenced.

Merritt also told the judge he served four years and nine months in federal prison for a 1992 bank robbery conviction.

All told, this time Merrit stole $10,752 from the four banks. Although he pleaded guilty to just one charge, his plea agreement details all four robberies.

Witnesses said Merritt was placed under citizens arrest by a waitress in a coffee shop near Valrico State Bank in October. The plea agreement doesn't mention the waitress but describes Merrit's capture at the hands of an off-duty police officer and a bank employee.

When he was caught, he had the gun and the lunch bag. Inside the lid of the nylon bag, he had written: "Empty Both Draws (sic) NOW I will shoot."

In addition to Valrico State Bank and Andersen Bank, Merritt robbed a Wachovia Bank in New Port Richey on Aug. 26 and Fifth Third Bank, 1703 McMullen Booth Road in Safety Harbor on Sept. 27.

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