Farmers Bank

A man wearing sunglasses robbed an Ellicott City bank yesterday afternoon after suggesting to employees that he carried a weapon in his coat, Howard County police said.Around 12:45 p.m. the robber entered the Commercial and Farmers Bank in the 8500 block of Route 40, less than a minute's drive from police headquarters. The man approached a teller and, after implying that he had a gun hidden under his dark waist-length coat, demanded cash, police said.The teller complied, and the man fled with an undetermined amount of money.

Witnesses came from all over the East Coast yesterday to portray Louis Hill III more as a religious peacemaker than as a murderer who may be headed for Maryland's gas chamber.The 26-year-old Morehouse College graduate and businessman was convicted Tuesday of the premeditated murders of Dorothy J. Langmead and Anastasia "Stacey" George and the attempted murders of Barbara Mitchell Aldrich and Cindy Ann Thomas.The women worked for the Randallstown branch of the Farmers Bank & Trust Co. in the 9800 block of Liberty Road.

A Harford County jury yesterday convicted Louis Hill III of premeditated murder in the 1992 robbery of a Randallstown bank that left two tellers dead and two other employees wounded.The jury deliberated just three hours before returning its verdict after Hill, 26, declined to testify at the end of a seven-day trial.Baltimore County prosecutors today will argue for the death penalty, alleging that Hill fired the shots into the heads of four employees who were forced to lie on the floor of the vault in the Farmers Bank & Trust branch in the 9800 block of Liberty Road by two masked robbers on Oct. 26, 1992.

Louis Hill III, the 26-year-old Rodgers Forge man accused of shooting four women in the back of the head as they lay on the floor during a Randallstown bank robbery, sold the murder weapon at least a month before the crime, a defense witness testified yesterday.Willie Wilson, a college and business friend of Mr. Hill's, told a Harford County jury that he saw the murder weapon -- a Cobray Mac-11 machine pistol -- in the apartment of Benjamin Franklin Boisseau Jr. a month before the Oct. 26, 1992, robbery of the Farmers Bank & Trust Co. branch in the 9800 block of Liberty Road.

Louis Hill III's fingerprint was on a surgical glove recovered when he was arrested after a fatal Randallstown bank robbery 13 months ago, but prosecution experts yesterday were unable to positively link blood, saliva, shoe prints, hair or fibers from the scene to the defendant.A Harford County jury also saw a photograph of the vault at the Farmers Bank & Trust Co. in the 9800 block of Liberty Road, showing a pool of blood and the body of one of the two employees killed in the holdup.Two masked robbers walked into the bank on Oct. 26, 1992, ordered four employees to lie on the floor and shot them one by one. Tellers Dorothy J. Langmead and Anastasia "Stacey" George died.

After the check for the rent on his new Rodgers Forge apartment bounced, Louis Hill III called the rental office the morning of Oct. 26, 1992, and promised to have the $485 -- in cash -- before the close of business.But by midafternoon, he was under arrest and charged in the robbery of Farmers Bank & Trust Co. in Randallstown, where four employees were shot as they lay on the floor of the bank vault. Tellers Dorothy J. Langmead and Anastasia "Stacey" George died.Mr. Hill, a 26-year-old businessman, is on trial in Harford County Circuit Court in Bel Air on two murder charges, two counts of attempted murder, and armed robbery and weapons charges.

Louis Hill III told Baltimore County police he was driving aimlessly up Liberty Road 13 months ago when two men he didn't know waved him down for a ride to a Randallstown bank, where two employees were shot to death and two were wounded, an officer testified yesterday.Mr. Hill, a 26-year-old businessman from Rodgers Forge, is on trial for first-degree murder in Harford County Circuit Court. His request for a change of venue was granted because prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him as the alleged gunman.

Willie Mae and Hollis Hill are sitting side by side at their dining room table. They are not holding hands.But there is something in their body language -- something subtle and indefinable -- that suggests a united front; that suggests that they are joined together in defense of their youngest son, who is about to stand trial for murder."

Two bank robberies in two weeks might be just a drop in the bucket for more urban areas, but recent holdups have sent a chill through West Friendship.Merchants and residents in the crossroads community admit they're jumpy and frustrated."There's been an increase in everyone's suspicion," said Dr. Larry Silverberg, who operates his family practice at the West Friendship Shopping Center in the 12800 block of Frederick Road, where a Commercial and Farmers Bank was robbed Oct. 5.On Monday, a Maryland National Bank across Route 32 in the 12600 block of Frederick Road also was robbed.

Shotgun bandit robs bank in West FriendshipA man armed with a shotgun robbed a West Friendship bank yesterday morning before escaping in a waiting car, county police said.The armed man walked into the Commercial and Farmers Bank in the 12800 block of Frederick Road about 10:30 a.m. and ordered the tellers to give him cash.After taking an undisclosed amount of money, police said, the robber ran out the front door and headed to the rear of the bank, where an accomplice waited in a car. The car was last seen traveling east on Frederick Road.