Thursday, April 06, 2000
Single instant turned customer into convict
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Thomas Burroughs walked into the Lebanon Citizens National Bank in Springboro intent on getting coin wrappers for a popcorn tin full of change.
His 3-year-old daughter, Joia, had wet the bed — his bed — and he needed a new mattress. After shopping around that day, Mr. Burroughs realized he didn't have quite enough money. But the tin of change might make up the difference.
For months, Mr. Burroughs had been grieving his wife's death. For months, he had borne the pressures of mounting debts and trying to raise their daughter alone. A Christmas-season burglary of his home made it even worse.
Ready to count out his pennies, nickels and other coins, Mr. Burroughs snapped.
“My mind was a blank. It was a combination of the days prior, and the weeks and months,” Mr. Burroughs recounted Wednesday, sitting in jail after his sentencing in Warren County Common Pleas Court to two years in prison. “I just broke.”
In a moment, Mr. Burroughs was transformed on Dec. 28
from a customer seeking help to a thief demanding money.
“Give me the (expletive) money!” he told the lone teller.
She quickly handed over stacks of cash. He walked out with more than $7,000.
“I was shocked when she handed over the money. It came so easily,” Mr. Burroughs, of Kettering, Ohio, told The Cincinnati Enquirer in a jail interview.
High-speed chase
Suddenly, he had found himself leading a wild high-speed police chase through three counties with his little girl strapped into her car seat in the back of his maroon late-model Buick.
The chase came to an end when Mr. Burroughs crashed into a van in Beavercreek, a suburb of Dayton.
Wednesday, dressed in an orange jail suit that labeled him a maximum-security prisoner, he sat in an interview room at the Warren County Jail, noting that until Dec. 28 he had never been to court for anything but a traffic ticket and a misdemeanor charge.
Mr. Burroughs talked about the months leading up to his crime, his remorse for what he did, and his plans to rebuild his life after prison.
Mr. Burroughs said he felt overwhelmed by more than $100,000 in unpaid medical bills and the death last May of his 26-year-old wife, Zonna, who was awaiting a heart transplant after developing serious complications in her pregnancy with Joia.
Mr. Burroughs, a systems analyst, was trying to raise his daughter alone while operating a home-based mail-order and computer business. He worried how he could provide for Joia's future and that of another daughter who lived in Georgia.
Mr. Burroughs' house was burglarized and “everything of value” was taken around Christmas.
“I don't want say I had too much responsibility, but I did,” he reflected.
“When my wife died and certain things went against me, I blamed her. If she was there, my job would have been easier. I even blamed her for this. But I don't blame her anymore. I blame myself.”
His stepfather, John Dorn, of Kettering, said Mr. Burroughs never confided his problems to his family.
“He didn't talk about it. He's a very private person. I think he got to a point where he couldn't take anymore,” Mr. Dorn said.
Making amends
In court Wednesday, Mr. Burroughs apologized to bank officials and the teller, who sat silently throughout the sentencing hearing.
He also apologized to his family and told Judge P. Daniel Fedders that he was “ready to make amends and go on with my life.”
William Kaufman, a lawyer who represents the bank, said LCNB officials are satisfied with the sentence. The money was recovered after Mr. Burroughs threw it from the car during the chase.
Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to persuade a grand jury to indict Mr. Burroughs on a more serious robbery charge. However, Mr. Burroughs didn't threaten the teller or have a weapon, so the grand jury decided that charge didn't fit the crime.
Instead, Mr. Burroughs later pleaded guilty to charges of grand theft, failure to comply with the order of a police officer, and child endangering.
In passing sentence, Judge Fedders said he considered Mr. Burroughs' minimal criminal record and the circumstances of the crime.
The two-year sentence was five fewer years than Mr. Burroughs could have received. Defense lawyer Carl Lewis said he plans to file a motion for his client's release in 30 days.
Mr. Burroughs also is eligible for prison “boot camp,” a rigorous program that would allow his release to a halfway house in 90 days, Mr. Lewis said.
In the meantime, Mr. Burroughs' mother, Karen Dorn, has temporary custody of Joia, who recently celebrated her fourth birthday. Joia was all smiles when she saw her father Wednesday for only the third time since he was jailed.
Mr. Burroughs said he plans to reunite with the child after his release from prison.
“She is my world right now,” he said.
Looking ahead
When he is set free, Mr. Burroughs said, he would like to establish a foundation for women who have complicated pregnancies. Not only should services be available for medical care, but also for counseling for other family members, said Mr. Burroughs, who didn't have insurance.
He said that kind of help wasn't there for him and his wife, who developed a thyroid condition and suffered five strokes and severe heart damage after the birth. Mrs. Burroughs was virtually an invalid, requiring home nursing care when she wasn't in the hospital.
Where will the money for the foundation come from?
“I'll go out and beg for money. I'll ask for donations,” Mr. Burroughs said. “But, no banks.”
Manager on ropes, but not out door
Some students return to CPS
Single instant turned customer into convict
Taft imposes safe-gun policy
Erin, Julia display more than cleavage
Romance writer wants to protect her craft
Jewish lawmaker stands ground
Butler, Warren quit jobs team
Four expelled in school drug case
Foundation will aid education in Warren County
Allen Temple to build impressive new church at Swifton
Fax a cut-and-paste job
Masters jacket: Made in Cincinnati
Moby, Bush thrill Miami audience
Springboro hiring elementary teachers
Teens badly hurt in West Union car crash
Butler newsletter helps businesses cut down on waste
Chemical leaks onto interstate
Ex-firefighter guilty of benefit fraud
Flag says it all about Glendale
Mason schools get free weather radios
Suit hits fees charged at jail
Teen births in city down 29% since '93
Teen drinking to be examined
Variety spices Mason event
Woman likely was strangled
Food Network visiting Northern Kentucky
For ceramic painter, it's guns 'n' skateboards
GET TO IT
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
TRISTATE DIGEST
