The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The mother of a 15-month-old girl who was with her father and two other men when they allegedly robbed a bank says her fiance’s apparent behavior was uncharacteristic.
“It’s not like her father to be so careless. Nothing’s worth putting your child in this position. There’s not enough money in the world,” Natalie Casdorph said after Thursday’s robbery, crying as she clutched her child outside the Charleston Police Department.
The girl, Lanya, was not injured although she was not restrained in a child safety seat when the car she was in crashed after a brief police chase.
“I can still hold my daughter. My daughter still has her life, her freedom. I’m thankful for that,” she said.
The father, Lashan Lamarr, and Addison Hall, both 25, and Michael Worthy, 33, were being held Friday in the South Central Regional Jail on $100,000 bond each. They were each charged with bank robbery.
Casdorph said she and Lamarr had recently enrolled in West Virginia State University. She was taking a chemistry quiz and she thought Lamarr was applying for jobs at the time the bank was robbed. Lamarr was supposed to take their daughter to Casdorph’s mother’s house.
Two men, one wearing a mask, walked into the bank in an upscale shopping center about 11:10 a.m., pulled pistols and demanded cash, according to court records.
They then drove south on U.S. 119 a short way before turning into a hillside residential area, said Charleston Police Lt. Brent Webster.
Patrolman Shawn Williams spotted the car and pulled in behind it. “They just started accelerating,” said Webster, the city’s chief of detectives.
Several items were tossed out of the car’s windows as they fled. A gun wrapped in a bandana was thrown into the rear of an elderly woman’s pickup truck. Police later found another gun on a hillside.
They had gone only about two miles on U.S. 119 when the car hit a median that blew out a front tire, bringing the car to an abrupt halt.
Lamarr and Worthy ran from the car, leaving the girl in the arms of Hall.
“The child wasn’t even in a child seat,” Webster said. “We’re just darned lucky no one was hurt.”
Lamarr and Worthy were arrested on a hillside behind two insurance agencies and Hall was arrested at the car.
A red dye capsule exploded in a moneybag, staining the inside of the car. Police would not say how much money was taken.