Pawnshop kidnap, robbery trial opens

Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz recalled for a District Court jury how an alleged plan to rob a pawnshop on March 4 turned into a six-hour hostage situation and standoff with police.

During opening statements in the kidnapping and robbery trial, Schwartz pointed to Tarz Mitchell, 31, and Howard Benjamin, 27, as the gun-wielding bandits who took over the store shortly before its opening.

Entry, the prosecutor alleged, was arranged by the third defendant, Mitchell's girlfriend Stephanie Lark, who was an employee of the Super Pawn Store at 3252 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

Although Lark, 31, originally "made like (the robbery) was a big surprise" and claimed she also was a hostage, Schwartz said that when she was released she carried out more than $14,000 in cash and jewelry hidden in her pantyhose.

Some of that she turned over to police and the rest was found during a strip search after police rejected her claim to be a victim and arrested her as an accomplice.

Lark's attorney, David Amesbury, told the jury in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom that she was "surprised" by the robbery and was forced to lie on the floor next to other victims.

Amesbury added that Lark never had a gun, never threatened anyone and never tied up any of the five hostages.

Schwartz, however, said that the bandits treated Lark differently than the other hostages and let her wander around without the cords that bound the hands and feet of the others.

He said that witnesses will testify she was not escorted to a restroom, although the facility was next to a back door and it would have been easy for her to escape.

She also was permitted to use her cellular telephone, but didn't call police, Schwartz said.

Police were called by two Super Pawn managers who were unexpectedly at the store that morning and working in a tiny office when the holdup began.

Schwartz said the managers barricaded themselves in the office until the six-hour siege ended.

The call to Metro Police resulted in the store being surrounded by patrolmen and SWAT officers within minutes.

During the standoff the bandits demanded a helicopter and other concessions and released two hostages as an apparent show of good faith. One of those was Lark, who became a suspect when she evaded questions about events unfolding inside the store, Schwartz said.

She originally denied knowing the gunmen although she was the mother of Mitchell's child, the prosecutor said.

The attorneys for Mitchell and Benjamin suggested their clients shouldn't be convicted of all 11 charges in the grand jury indictment, including five counts of kidnapping, three of robbery, one of burglary, one of conspiracy and one of resisting a public officer.

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