After an hour and a half of deliberation Wednesday, a federal jury found a 58-year-old Hixson man guilty of robbing a bank at gunpoint in January 2014.
The jury, which began discussions around 10:30 a.m., returned before lunchtime with the verdict: Dearl Dean Lawton was guilty on all counts of aggravated bank robbery, using a firearm during commission of a crime and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lawton, whose trial began Monday, remained stone-faced as federal agents led him away from the courtroom. Afterward, while prosecutors and defense attorneys wheeled away their boxes of evidence, three of Lawton's family members began to sob.
Prosecutors said Lawton brandished a firearm when he walked into the First Volunteer Bank on 5109 Hixson Pike on Jan. 31, 2014. Dressed in dark clothes, a dark hoodie, sunglasses and a mask that concealed most of his face, Lawton left with $2,641 after holding a bank teller at gunpoint. He was indicted on the charges in May 2015 and arrested around the same time, records show.
After the trial, Mitchell Carter, one of Lawton's attorneys, said the 58-year-old probably will remain in federal custody in Bradley County, Tenn., until his June 22 sentencing hearing. Carter declined to offer further comment on the outcome.
Throughout the case, U.S. prosecutor Michael Porter relied on numerous eyewitnesses, forensic specialists and video from the day of the robbery.
During closing arguments Wednesday, he reminded jurors that several eyewitnesses gave the same description of the robber.
One witness, Demetri Proffitt, drove after Lawton as he ran out of the bank and down a nearby alley. Proffitt said Lawton's hair was salt-and-pepper colored, giving authorities the closest estimate of his age, Porter reminded them.
"He lost him for a couple of seconds," Porter said of the chase, "but when he picked him up, he found him [Lawton] near the Dumpster."
And in that Dumpster, Porter said, investigators recovered four gloves, a sweatshirt and a hat. Of those items, he said, three returned DNA hits that matched a known sample of Lawton's.
"He had been behind on mortgage payments for 16 months," Porter told jurors.
"There is your motive right there," the prosecutor said.
Brian O'Shaughnessy, one of Lawton's other attorneys, countered that several of the best eyewitnesses identified the robber as a young man in his 30s.
"My client is not in his 30s," O'Shaughnessy said, motioning to Lawton, a 58-year-old man with weathered cheeks and glasses.
O'Shaughnessy said some eyewitnesses may have identified the .22-caliber revolver they said Lawton used, but they couldn't know for sure whether it was a real weapon or a replica.
Referencing a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent he cross-examined the day before, O'Shaughnessy said handling a firearm is the only way to determine its authenticity.
None of the eyewitnesses, no matter how much experience they had with guns, handled the alleged weapon, he said.
Next, O'Shaughnessy listed some items: a firearm, a pair of sunglasses, a license plate number of the getaway truck, a bucket. All pieces of evidence investigators never recovered, he said.
"It's not up to the defense to prove everything, to explain everything," O'Shaughnessy said.
That burden of proof is up to prosecutors, he said. And they didn't meet it fully.
"I would ask you," O'Shaughnessy said, "to find my client not guilty."
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347 with tips. Follow @zackpeterson918.