UNCLE CARY: [00:00:09] When you went to prison, it changed the whole atmosphere of your household. [00:00:17] It changed the whole atmosphere of the family. [00:00:24] We really got afraid, because [unclear] nothin' that Cary can do. It's nothin' that your dad can do. It's nothin' that your mom can do. It's nothin' that your grandmother can do. [00:00:39] You in the penitentiary now. You don't know nothin' 'bout bein' in the penitentiary.
AUNT CARLOS: [00:00:43] 17 years old. Gone there where men been in there 100 years. [00:00:48] The fear--there had to be some kind of fear. [00:00:53] And elsewhere, we were frightened. [00:00:56] Because he's so young. [00:00:59] You didn't verbalize, you wanted her to be okay. You wanted Mom to be okay. You know, you wanted me to be okay. [00:01:08] Goin' in there like, Okay, I know who I am, and don't really mess with me. [00:01:16] But yet, in inside, still a child, on the inside fearing what could happen, but yet gotta deal with it.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:01:27] My stomach was turnin'(?) flips, I mean my heart was racing, but I had to be--had to be strong and I had to keep my composure for my wife and, you know, I really wanted to tell the human(?) [unclear] what was wrong with you.
AUNT PORTLAND: [00:01:40] I even thought about even goin' try to get you out...
DARIUS: [00:01:43] Bring(?) me up?
AUNT PORTLAND: [00:01:44] Yeah. [00:01:46] And don't nobody know that but God. And I say, I can't do that, I can't do that.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:01:54] I knew--it was nothin' else that I could do, you were goin' there, but I had to just pray and hold on, that even though you were goin' to prison, you would still be fine. You'd be fine and we would get through it. So I had to hold on to that.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:02:34] I'm gonna tell you what really happened. I met Mike at one of my girlfriends' birthday party. It was June 6, 1981, and my sister Carlos and I walked up to the party, and Michael and some of his friends were gettin' ready to come out of the door, and when they saw us walk up to the party, Mike walked right up to me and asked me, could he taste my lipstick?
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:02:57] So we goin' back and forth, back and forth. And then I asked her to dance, then she danced with me, then my friend wanted to dance with her, then I was gettin' kinda mad, I ain't really know her right then, but I felt like I had a better chance than he did--
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:03:14] And from then on, he followed me track from track.
MIKE [DAD]: [00:03:18] Yeah, I set the date, September the 17th--
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:03:23] And we both lookin' forward to that date.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:03:53] When I met her, she told me she had a baby, that he was like six months old, that he came with the package, so--if I wanted the mom, I'd have to have the son too. [00:04:13] She was different. The thing that she would do, you know, it was like, okay, was(?) something new to me, because I had just, you know, got out of high school and start(?) right there(?). [00:04:32] She was teachin' me as, you know, as we was growin' up.
DARIUS: [00:04:47] Whose decision was it for me to walk you down the aisle?
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:04:51] It was mine. It was my decision for you to walk me down the aisle.
DARIUS: [00:04:55] Why?
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:04:56] Because you were--you're--you're my son, you're my only son, and since my dad couldn't do it, there was nobody else who--that I wanted to do it.
DARIUS: [00:05:04] Mom and I have always been close. She was and still is like my everything, that she took care of me, my sisters--she always worked hard, if there was overtime at work, she was always tryin' to get overtime--she was just like a supermom.
GRANDMOTHER: [00:05:28] The sweetest thing in the world. Now Darius, I'm not sayin' that because you're my grandson, but I enjoyed my little grandboy so much, when you were a baby and realized I was your grandmother, I don't know--but you just loved me for me, and I would be comin' in from work every night about 11:15, 11:30, and I'd be tippin' through the door [unclear] to get to(?) my room without havin' to wake up Darius and talk to the baby. Every time I would get in there, [unclear] at home, Darius, you'd be up lookin' at me, waitin' for me.
DARIUS: [00:06:12] I grew up in a close-knit family so hangin' out was with family and friends who we considered family, distant cousins, distant relatives, but it was never like goin' all over the city. Cause hangin' out was like goin' across the street, or playin' in the neighborhood. Me and my sister built a tents out of sheets. At the time, I thought Houston was just a small town.
TAI [COUSIN]: [00:06:35] Well, back then, you know, we can walk the neighborhood, it was a lot of fun just playin' around with the different people. We built our treehouses, we had our love(?), different jobs--we didn't need nobody else.
AUNT PORTLAND: [00:06:49] You were just a warm child. You always had big dreams.
DARIUS: [00:07:09] I always thought we were a middle-class family. It didn't dawn on me until I was like around 14 or 15 that we did not have money.
GRANDMOTHER: [00:07:26] Grandpa was still workin' at the same place he's always worked that(?) and wasn't makin' any money hardly--I didn't have a good steady job--Michael was workin' and Sigrid was workin' but everybody even(?) got deep in debt.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:07:39] It was like I was workin' for nothin', because every time we got a paycheck we have to pay these bills and pay the credit card off and--we still had a little somethin' left, but not like we should have had more.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:07:49] Whether it was for clothes, whether it was for groceries, anything that we needed to do, we used the credit card for.
DARIUS: [00:07:55] We were not starvin', we were not on welfare, but we were strugglin' paycheck to paycheck.
GRANDMOTHER: [00:08:01] Everybody was just in a distress. Everybody. And it was really bad.
DARIUS: [00:08:06] I would ask my parents all the time about the financial situation. It was because I just--I would overhear it, I would overhear conversations, arguments about it, so I would just ask.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:08:20] The problems what we had goin' on in our home, even though you are as intelligent as you are, maybe I should not have talked to you about it, because I didn't realize how I was affecting you.
DARIUS: [00:08:35] Once I began to realize the extent of our financial problems, I went from being a carefree and joyous child to becoming acutely aware of the fact that the world was not as I saw it, and the burden that my parents had was slowly trickling down to me. [00:09:07] I don't know how many times I wished like I'd--like, my wish that money was not an issue. She wasn't tellin' me to, You need to save me, you need to rescue me, but it's like no one was rescuing anyone.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:09:24] You took that burden to think that okay, well I need to help my mom, and I need to help my mom, I wanna take care of my mom, I'm sick of her havin' this burden on her to take care of this family. But at the time, I didn't realize that it affected you in that way.
MRS. LISTER [ENGLISH TEACHER]: [00:11:07] You were very knowledgeable, you had a sense of humor, you were respectful, but you were a good student.
PIERRE [CLASSMATE]: [00:11:17] Well,(?) modern schoolboy, you know, handled his books, do his work, you know what I'm sayin', [unclear] days and go on home.
DARIUS: [00:11:25] At the beginning of my junior year, I was thinking about life after high school. I became more focused, knowing that college would be coming up soon. I enrolled in AP honors classes, joined the student council--I was excited about that year.
MIESHA [CLASSMATE]: [00:11:40] You were actually the only guy my dad would let me just hang out with, and--you got this station wagon, we would all pile up in this station wagon, I'm talkin' about maybe four or five people in one station wagon to go to school. You would pull up and I would hear it--boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom--and then just BOOMP! It was like Darius outside.
TREI [CLASSMATE]: [00:12:01] Oh, I think we were just tryin' to pretty much embarrass each other. And that's how it started. I was talkin' *shit*, he was talkin' *shit* back, in the lunch(?) room in front of crowds like kids do. [unclear]. I remember gettin' up in the cafeteria, I remember you grabbed my [unclear], he was on top of [unclear], we was gonna float. And I remember you pounded and pounded me in the back or somethin', that's when we got cool.
DARIUS: [00:12:39] Outside of school, I got a job stocking merchandise at Venture, which is like a Walmart. Back at home, bills were being paid on time, I remember my birthday was coming up--things were looking pretty good.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:13:10] They kicked in our garage door, went into the attic, walked across the ceiling and kicked in your ceiling and your bedroom and dropped down in the house.
DARIUS: [00:13:20] I walk into my room, there's this humongous hole in the ceiling, right above my bed. Insulation, sheetrock, dirt, three pairs of my tennis shoes were gone--
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:13:29] They took my gun, they took some jewelry--
DARIUS: [00:13:32] --some shirts were gone, all the VCR's in the house were gone.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:13:35] That was a very horrible experience for me to know that we had been violated like that.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:13:39] They just ransacked the house, just lookin'--openin' drawer, lookin' for different stuff.
DARIUS: [00:13:43] My stepfather had cashed his check, he hadn't deposited it so it was in the drawer. They took that whole check. We had a VHS camera, it was gone. [00:13:57] That robbery had really broke us. We were doin' well, but then the robbery--I don't know, like it just--I don't know, it just like it(?) mentally, emotionally--it had(?) wiped us out. [00:14:14] I never forget the night I had to go to bed, and just starin' at this open hole in the ceiling, and I was freaked out, because I could just looked right into this black abyss. It took me a long time after that before I was able to go to sleep with the TV off, cause I was just terrified that somebody was gonna come through the roof again and rob us.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:15:37] Hi, honey. Do you look nice today?
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:15:42] Do I look nice today today? No, I'm tired of working.
TELEVISION: [00:15:45] New jobs were created last--
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:15:46] When can I quit?
DARIUS: [00:15:50] There was just no way to get out of the situation we were in. I saw how hard my parents were working, and I saw my dad had two jobs, like are we still struggling? Like, this is ridiculous. So, yeah, I'm gonna help out, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to help out. [00:16:11] It started with me stealing, thinking I was doing something honorable. [00:16:20] I was gonna take these VCR's up out of the store and replace the VCR's that were stolen from us. [00:16:27] I was at a Venture and a customer called, was like you know, there's a pickup, one television, one VCR. Instead of putting one VCR on the pallet, I put four VCR's. [00:16:42] And I literally rolled them right out of the store. And how I rationalized it in my head, I was thinking, well, this is a major corporation, they're not gonna miss these VCR's, whereas we could barely afford to get those VCR's in the first place, in fact they were taken, it felt very personal to me. [00:17:03] Once I got the idea that I could get over on, if I could outsmart someone, outsmart this company or get away with it, it was a thrill to me. [00:17:13] And I was able to get around and circumvent the system. [after door knock at 00:17:34] Uh, Darius Monroe? Hi, does Mr. Ned live here? David Ned?
(?): [00:17:41] Yes.
DARIUS: [00:17:42] Is he here this evening?
(?): [00:17:43] No.
DARIUS: [00:17:44] Well, 10 years ago, an event happened where he was a customer inside a Bank of America, and I wanted to speak with him about that.
(?): [00:17:49] What happened inside the Bank of America?
DARIUS: [00:17:52] What happened?
(?): [00:17:53] Yeah.
DARIUS: [00:17:53] The bank was robbed, 10 years ago. [unclear] Knight needs to talk to you about that.
(?): [00:17:59] He said that awhile back.
DARIUS: [00:18:01] Okay.
(?): [00:18:01] I mean, are you a witness or something?
DARIUS: [00:18:02] Yes, well, somewhat like that.
(?): [00:18:05] So are you with Bank of America?
DARIUS: [00:18:06] No, no, I'm not with Bank of America, not--not at all. No. I have no--
(?): [00:18:11] So you want to talk with [unclear]
DARIUS: [00:18:12] Cause I was involved with the robbery, I wasn't a witness. It was myself 10 years ago. We went into the bank and robbed it.
(?): [00:18:20] So you robbed the bank?
DARIUS: [00:18:21] I did. I did.
(?): [00:18:24] Why?
DARIUS: [00:18:25] I was 16 at the time.
(?): [00:18:27] And you want to--
DARIUS: [00:18:28] Apologize to Mr. Ned.
(?): [00:18:30] Well...okay. Um...um...let me call him and see exactly when he's coming home.
DARIUS: [00:18:42] Okay. [00:19:05] What's goin' on in your mind?
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:19:07] What's goin' on in my mind? What I'm-a do with my hair.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:19:13] Man, I was--I'm tryin' to have my [unclear] but, you know that...*shit* happens, you know what I'm sayin'.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:19:25] I put it like this: I heard somebody say that a teenage mind is not formed all the way anyway. They said that it's certain chemicals that you lack at that age, to where your mind doesn't decipher from right and wrong, and I think I was missin' out on that chemical.
STACEY L. BROWNLEE [FORMER ASST. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FORT BEND COUNTY JUVENILE COURTS]: [00:19:48] Would it surprise me to learn that it was somebody on the inside? It would not. Would it surprise me to know that you guys spent some time watching? It would not. Would it surprise me that you guys just got dadgum lucky? It wouldn't. I mean, things happen. You might have just happened in the right place at the right time, but my prosecutor's sense tells me that happens few and far between.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:20:11] I thought you kidding with me, I thought you were playin'. When you were tellin' me that Mom, you were tellin' me, I'm-a, I'm-a get you, I'm-a give you some money, I'm-a rob a bank and I don't know if you remember or not, but I would tell you, Okay, and I would go, go on, like it was nothing.
DARIUS: [00:20:27] America's Most Wanted, there was this guy that robbed this bank that wasn't so far from our house in Missouri City, and he'd robbed the bank, [unclear] had gotten away, and had robbed it again, and he went it by himself, didn't have a mask on. And I remember laughing at this guy, and I brought it up to everybody in the living room, I was saying, if he could get away with robbing a bank, I'm sure someone with any type of intelligence could plan a better robbery. And I remember driving by the bank he robbed, this really, really small branch, and I was thinking that this is possible.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:21:05] Anybody can plot a good scheme, but scheme was--it was good, you know what I'm sayin'.
DARIUS: [00:21:11] There was a specific branch that was near my job at the time.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:21:15] I remember I was takin' a ride up to the place. We go scopin' at that(?), seein' what was goin' on.
DARIUS: [00:21:23] It was pretty barren, we didn't see any security guards, they only had one camera which was right above the door. We thought, that was the perfect location.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:21:35] It was like, well, it's gonna be this day. It was gonna go down.
DARIUS: [00:21:40] Trei was the driver, Pierre was the gunman.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:21:44] I'm a go-getter(?), man, it, it was--it was time to go.
DARIUS: [00:21:47] And I was in charge of getting the money.
(?): [00:21:54] [unclear] There's a gentleman here--what's your name again?
DARIUS: [00:21:58] Darius Monroe.
(?): [00:21:59] Darius Monroe. Do you--does that name ring a bell? [00:22:02] He is with himself. He's--hold on. Y'all(?) speakerphone.
MR. NED: [00:22:08] How you doin'?
DARIUS: [00:22:11] Hello?
MR. NED: [00:22:12] Hello?
DARIUS: [00:22:12] How's it going, Mr. Ned?
MR. NED: [00:22:14] Blessed(?), how are you?
DARIUS: [00:22:15] I'm doing well, sir.
MR. NED: [00:22:17] [unclear] Can you hold on one second, one second, hold on one minute.
DARIUS: [00:22:19] Sure. This is weird as I'm--
(?): [00:22:21] [unclear]
DARIUS: [00:22:22] I--I didn't come back here to [unclear] already, it's outdated(?).
MR. NED: [00:22:25] [unclear] phone call, sir? Okay, I'm done. Can you meet me at my church?
DARIUS: [00:22:30] Sure.
MR. NED: [00:22:31] Drop(?) to my church, [unclear] could take, [unclear] my church [unclear]
DARIUS: [00:22:34] Okay.
MR. NED: [00:22:34] I'm on the way there, I'll be there shortly.
DARIUS: [00:22:36] Okay, thank you.
MR. NED: [00:22:37] All right.
DARIUS: [00:22:37] Thank you.
MR. NED: [00:22:38] Okay. Bye.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:22:42] I'd often wonder how I would have responded to you when I would really see you. Because of, you know, the incidents, I was like, at that point, there's that anger that was in me, has it gone? You know, and sometime you gotta get to a point where you gotta face some demons. And--but I--but I'm grateful to God is that when I saw you, there was nothing in me with any type of malice.
DARIUS: [00:23:15] How do you feel you would have responded had you met myself and other gentlemen if not a week or just a short while after the robbery had occurred, if you had a chance to meet us?
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:23:27] I probably would have hurt you. Just being honest cause, you, know it's--I hadn't been saved that long, and I haven't been saved to the point where I was going, Let the Lord fight my battle. You know, I wasn't to the point where I could turn that other cheek. I thought I was gonna really get hurt. That was pretty much a given there. You know, so that's why I kept saying, Okay, I hope let's get it over with, quick.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:24:00] You know, once it's done, it's done, but at the same time it was just--it was just unhealthy, though.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:24:10] We went by Pierre's house. We were sittin' in front of the house. That's the only time we got that feeling. It's like, man, what am I doin'?
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:24:21] We was hopin' where nobody tryin' to be no hero and then there'd-a been a whole 'nother scene, there'd-a been a robbery-murder scene, it was--I think(?) it was, you know what I'm sayin'. Cause I--I was scared.
DARIUS: [00:24:36] If you are in the bank and you're just dropping off a $20 dollar deposit of what have you, and somebody in a skeleton suit comes to that door with a 12-gauge shotgun, the first thing that goes off in your brain is not, Is it loaded?, it's like, I don't want to die. So... [00:25:03] And when you're 16, you don't really think about that. [00:25:08] It wasn't on my mind, I wasn't--I was just thinking like in(?), you know, my family is in a situation, I'm not going to hurt anyone, [00:25:20] we're just trying to get this money, get out. [00:25:38] The morning of the robbery, I woke up like it was any other day. I was afraid, but I'd never-- [00:25:47] There was nothing in me that said, you know, I'm not gonna do it.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:25:50] That whole day I was just--I was trippin'. You know what I'm sayin', when I think back on what I was, you know what I'm sayin', *damn*.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:25:59] I was a little nervous, but not more nervous than a normal person should have been. Just a little nervous.
DARIUS: [00:26:12] After Trei's parents went to work, we both met outside, he gave me the gun, I put the gun in the back of the station wagon, and I went back in the house, got ready for school, Trei got ready. When it was time to go, I just pulled out the driveway and rode to school, like it was any other day.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:26:34] I just got my--my check, and the company was always asking us, Do you want Direct Deposit? I said no, I said I want to see my money in my hand. And I remember leaving work, and I had a choice of going to two banks. And--but this one was closer to the job, so I said, I'll just go right over there.
DARIUS: [00:26:57] Trei, Pierre and I had agreed, we would go to school all day. We would leave school for a brief amount of time, do the robbery and then go back. And the main reason was because of attendance: If we were counted as in school, that was the best alibi. So, in third period, I went to class and purposely went to my desk, put my head down on my desk, and played like I was sick. [00:27:24] Eventually, after she took roll, I was like Mrs. [unclear], can I go to the nurse, I don't feel good. And she wrote me a Nurse's Pass. And so I left, went downstairs, walked out of the building, and outside by my car, Trei and Pierre both standing outside waiting.
TREI(?) [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:27:45] Rode that [unclear] right to the location. It's Ground Zero [unclear]
DARIUS: [00:27:51] As we're driving, leaving school, and my heart's pumping, cause I know(?) what we're about to do, and I'm nervous, I'm really nervous. Cause I can't believe we're about to do it. [00:28:04] And we pulled up at this phone booth at a EZ Pawn, dialed 911 and a Stafford operator answered the phone.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:28:12] It was like(?) we're, let's stop over here, it's a--it's just packets(?). I believe at a(?) school...
DARIUS: [00:28:20] I explained to the operator that there's a bomb in the gym, that I was a *pissed-off* parent...
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:28:24] ...and that a detour of the area caps(?) around the school.
DARIUS: [00:28:30] The operator was telling me to calm down, calm down, and I was like I'm gonna blow that *shit* up.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:28:34] So the reaction time to the robbery would be, you know, postponed.
DARIUS: [00:28:43] Pierre grabs the shotgun, and I tell him it was like, make sure we take all the bullets, we have no bullets inside of the gun. There were like four, five shotgun bullets, and I took them and threw them on the floor.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:28:56] I seen it, but--what you did, I had grabbed one and put one in my pocket, in my jacket pocket, cause I felt just goin' up in there like that, I wouldn't--that wasn't somethin' I wanted to do.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:29:27] So we sittin' there, we just tryin' to amp ourself up, [00:29:34] and I didn't think nobody was ever gonna get out of the car.
DARIUS: [00:30:04] Pierre and I get out of the station wagon, and walking towards the front of the strip center. And I just get nervous as *hell*. Like, what am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing? [00:30:25] We both just run back and get inside the station wagon. [00:30:32] Trei is like, you know, what's happenin', and I'm like--I'm like, I don't know, I don't know.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:30:37] Yeah, I'm thinkin', you know, we sayin', *fuck* it, and it ain't gonna work.
DARIUS: [00:30:40] I don't know, I just felt that we just couldn't go through with it, and as crazy as it sounds, the radio was blastin'. And I remember 2Pac's Hail Mary came on the station. You know, we got all excited, and he was like, you know, Hail Mary come(?)--you know, we just got it, we just got excited, like let's go do it, let's go do it, let's go get this paper. I don't--I don't know what, I'm not blamin' 2Pac, but he--but the song got us hyped up.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:31:08] Ain't no runnin' back, ain't no stoppin'. Ain't no stoppin'.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:31:48] I got my check cashed, and I was getting ready to leave, cause I had some cash in my hand, when you guys broke in.
DARIUS: [00:32:02] It was like a dream. It was crazy. I just remember seeing Pierre tell everybody, get down, get down on the floor.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:32:12] [unclear] I seein' people fallin', droppin' on the ground, and just probably scared as *hell*.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:32:21] When you made me lay down on the floor, I'd never been that scared before. It was like, everything on the inside of me was shaking.
DARIUS: [00:32:36] I just ran to the back where the tellers were, and one of the tellers' like, I have to get the key out of the drawer, and I remember telling her like, Do not try anything.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:32:45] The only thing that I could--within my mind, I'm saying, Lord, don't let them call no names out.
DARIUS: [00:32:52] I don't even remember seeing like the people's faces really.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:32:56] I don't want to know who this is.
DARIUS: [00:33:01] Any day now, this green was going from that safe into the bag.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:33:08] Because if your name is called out, in order to keep from getting caught, they got to get rid of the people that hear it.
DARIUS: [00:33:18] I'm trying to get all the money to the bag and I hear Pierre yell, Hurry up, hurry up.
PIERRE: [00:33:25] It's time to go. So we get up out of there.
DARIUS: [00:33:30] I was just, you know, zip up the bag, and we just run out of the bank.
[00:33:37] (humming to music)
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:34:14] When you ran out--out the place, God told me, Minister to this lady cause the lady that was, she'd really lost it. So, all I did was got up and I begin to lay hands on her and pray for her. And when I began to pray for her, she became very, very calm. [00:34:48] But then there were other people in the bank, I didn't know they had that many safe people in the bank. They came, and everybody was praying.
DARIUS: [00:35:07] We drive down the main street. We returned by the EZ Pawn where I made the bomb threat.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:35:16] That little parkin' lot where he made the [unclear] swoon with cops.
DARIUS: [00:35:20] I kid you not, it had to be about maybe 10 to 12 cop cars, all from Stafford Police Department, in the parking lot of the pawn shop, at the phone, checking the phone, and Trei just freaked out.
TREI [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:35:33] I turn right on(?) side of the street, and pass the cops. I remember I was lookin' at 'em, it was like [unclear] 15 [unclear] over there, who I pass right by 'em, and(?) no one, where(?) they not knowin' where they(?) just went down. [00:35:50] Course, my heart was racin' the closer I got over there, I was like, man, there's a cop behind us. [unclear] here(?), they tell me, look in the mirror, like man, that's a cop, [unclear] orange car. I thought it was a [unclear].
DARIUS: [00:36:04] It was like this intense paranoia, like you just--this paranoia you'd never believe. I felt like I was on the verge of a heart attack, like I couldn't stop my heart from beating, I couldn't stop from looking out the window, I just felt that any moment, a SWAT team was gonna just descend and just take us, snatch us away.
PASTOR NED [BANK CUSTOMER]: [00:36:27] I just did what God told me to do. Police took my name, and I left. I really was trying to get away from that, really, to be honest with you, I just wanted to get away. I'd seen enough for the day.
STACEY L. BROWNLEE [FORMER ASST. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FORT BEND COUNTY JUVENILE COURTS]: [00:36:43] I remember when Detective Roman contacting me and letting me know that there had been a bank robbery, and that it was fairly significant.
DARIUS: [00:36:51] We drive back to school, and getting out of the car, I see Pierre take $5,000 dollars and put it in his wallet.
STACEY L. BROWNLEE [FORMER ASST. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FORT BEND COUNTY JUVENILE COURTS]: [00:36:58] She was just going through the steps of investigation and--and hadn't gotten a suspect at that point.
DARIUS: [00:37:04] Like, Pierre, what are you doing? And he saying, ah, it ain't, it ain't nothin', he just mumblin' and *shit*.
PIERRE [ACCOMPLICE]: [00:37:07] Man, it was too easy, you know what I'm sayin', I'm--I'm like, man, I know I gotta pay for this somewhere down the line like, you know what I'm sayin'...
DARIUS: [00:37:16] I'm thinking, you know, this is already a sign that this is not going well. This is not gonna go well. [00:37:25] After school got out, I went back home. [00:37:28] I remember taking one of my shoe boxes--I wear size 13, so it's a pretty big shoe box--and I put--I put about $30, maybe $40,000 dollars inside of a shoe box, and I just sat in my room. [00:37:48] My mom, when she gets off from work, sometimes if I look out my bedroom window, I could see her car pulling around like the main street into our neighborhood. And I saw her car come in, and I waited till I heard her car coming in the driveway, and I ran into her room, I just set the box on her bed.
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:38:38] I opened that box and saw that money, and that's when I went crazy. [00:38:45] I don't remember if I started screaming--I just know I started itching all over. Cause I--I couldn't believe it. [00:38:57] I wanted to know how--How did it happen? How much was it? [00:39:05] It was just like is(?)--you know, a bunch of questions.
DARIUS: [00:39:09] I remember her coming in, get to(?) my room as she had like--she was shaking. [00:39:15] Well, she just kept asking me, she said, What is this, you know, where did this come from? And I was like, I told you, I told you.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:40:01] It was unreal. It was like a fantasy, to see the money on the bed, cause we had never seen that much money before in my life.
DARIUS: [00:40:12] And Mom was like, well how much is this, I was like, well this--I think this is like $30-$40,000. She said, Oh my God, oh my God. And...I was like, well this is not it, all of it. She said, What? I said, I just went to my room and got the rest of the money, and poured it on her bed, and she was like, Oh my God, oh my God, and my--my Dad was like, Darius!
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:40:33] We were asking the questions, but at the same time, I know it might sound kinda crazy, you're feelin' a relief because I'm thinkin' on--the only thing I'm thinkin' at that time too, okay, this money is here, I can pay off these bills.
UNCLE CARY: [00:40:48] My pager went off about...I'd say about 15 time, 911, 911, 911, would you all tell us(?) [unclear] about it, so I'm sayin', what the heck is goin' on?
SIGRID [MOM]: [00:41:00] He called Cary to come over to--I guess--give us some tips on what to do with the money.
UNCLE CARY: [00:41:07] I--I heard a public [unclear] to decide, I guess I got round there about...maybe 10 minutes from where you all stated in the cul-de-sac.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:41:16] I said...you just robbed a bank with some friends, and we had this money...what do I need to do?
UNCLE CARY: [00:41:25] So Mike went up into the back room and come out duffel bag, heavy leather(?) bag, full of paper.
MIKE [STEPDAD]: [00:41:33] He said that we need to get the money and hide the money, take it out the house. And that's what we did, we took it out the house.
DARIUS: [00:41:51] I didn't want to feel like my family had pressured me into this...
STACEY L. BROWNLEE [FORMER ASST. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FORT BEND COUNTY JUVENILE COURTS]: [00:41:53] Sure. Sure. I mean, that was my thought...I don't know--I wouldn't say they pressured you into it, I don't know if they knew you were gonna do it beforehand. Do I think that they shared in the proceeds? I think that's a possibility. Do I think that...that they hindered the investigation? I think that's a possibility. And I felt like your parents