Are Kidnapped Teenagers Being Forced to Rob Banks?
ZAHN: Remember these pictures outside a courthouse, a gunman chasing a lawyer, firing off many shots. What happened to these men? Well, they will both tell us tonight. Meanwhile, police in Maryland at this hour are still searching for one half of a team of thieves suspected of kidnapping teenaged boys and forcing them, at gunpoint, to rob banks. They haven't seen anything like this before. Here is Jason Carroll with a bizarre story "Outside the Law."</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barely old enough to shave, and still has a baby face for a 17-year-old. But police say Jeremiah Hall is no innocent teenager. They say he's a streetwise criminal, partly responsible for a string of bizarre bank robberies in suburban Washington,</s>D.C. MAJOR DANIEL DUSSEAU, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Somebody who is used to being hardened by the streets develops that hard outer shell, and is not easily influenced.</s>CARROLL: Investigators say Hall, and another man, who is still on the loose, but seen here in this composite sketch, kidnapped teenagers, forcing them to rob banks. The crime spree began on January 20 at this metro station. A 15- year-old boy gets off the train. He's abducted at gunpoint and given a note.</s>KEVIN PERKINS, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, BALTIMORE FIELD OFFICE: Well, essentially, it is -- it is what we refer to as a demand note. It is a note that it -- it is provided to a bank teller that tells them, hand over the money.</s>CARROLL (on camera): The 15-year-old gives the demand note to a teller inside this Wachovia bank in Landover, Maryland. Once he has the cash, he rushes out and hands the money over to the suspects waiting outside. Minutes later, he's forced to do it again at this SunTrust bank, just a few miles away. The suspects take all the cash and leave him. (voice-over): The boy immediately called police. Major Daniel Dusseau says, at the time, he was skeptical of his story.</s>DUSSEAU: We're checking -- listening to the story, checking out the truthfulness of it, found it very strange.</s>CARROLL: February 6, analyst 15-year-old boy is kidnapped after getting off a bus. He's forced to rob this SunTrust bank in Prince George's County, three miles from the previous robberies. Police say his abductors wait outside, avoiding surveillance cameras. Detectives catch the teen and realize, the case is unlike anything they had seen before.</s>DUSSEAU: He tells, basically, a very similar story. And -- and, as we start looking at this, we put the pieces together, realizing, we may have a string of incidents.</s>CARROLL: This surveillance tape gave them another clue. It shows the suspect, the one who is still at large, taking a piece of paper from a store, located near the SunTrust bank. Police say the suspects use it to write a demand note. February 8, a 14-year-old boy abducted while walking home. He's forced to rob this bank in Bethesda. The demand note reads, "Give me all your money, or I will shoot someone."</s>PERKINS: An individual threatened them personally, threatened their families, unless they would comply with -- with their demands.</s>CARROLL: Thanks to a tip, police arrested Jeremiah Hall last week, charging him with kidnapping and assault. Robbery charges are still pending. Hall hasn't entered a plea. His grandmother says, police have the wrong man.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel that they should find the person that -- who is really responsible.</s>CARROLL: But Marlene Johnson says, Hall's grandmother is in denial. She has lived next door to her for years.</s>MARLENE JOHNSON, NEIGHBOR OF JEREMIAH BROWN HALL'S GRANDMOTHER: If his grandmother would tell the truth, she would tell you, last year, he stole her car. I had to help her go find him. And her car, he stole. I mean, he just -- the boy just does -- and he does things like that.</s>CARROLL: Hall has a juvenile record, but police are restricted from releasing details about it. What concerns investigators isn't just the age of the victims, but the age of their suspect in custody.</s>PERKINS: Surprising, disappointing, disturbing -- it is -- it is unfortunate that -- that someone of that age would be involved in something along these lines.</s>CARROLL: Hall's age won't prevent him from being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He will be charged as an adult. Jason Carroll, CNN, Prince George's County, Maryland.</s>ZAHN: And there is this: Jeremiah Hall is due back in court next Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. There has been a big break in another bizarre case. Who would stoop to stealing dead bodies? A little bit later on, watch out: How did this car end up going the wrong way in the fast lane? First, though, let's turn to Erica Hill of Headline News with the hour's other top stories. Hi, Erica. Good to see you.</s>ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Hi, Paula. Nice to see you as well. Unrelenting violence in Iraq today, including a gruesome discovery near the town of Baquba, where gunmen executed 47 civilians. At least 120 others have died since the bombing of a Shiite shrine, including a TV news crew and seven American soldiers. Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff is asking a federal judge to quash his indictment on a technicality. Lewis Libby is accused of lying to investigators about the leak of a CIA operative's identity. And you may call it the election that will never die. An election watchdog group says it found tens of thousands of voting irregularities after examining machine records in the 2004 Florida race. Finally, best-selling author James Frey has reportedly been dropped by his publisher, Riverhead Books. Last month, you may recall, Frey admitted, much of his best-selling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," was, in fact, fiction. Paula, the fallout from that continues.</s>ZAHN: Well, you know what isn't fiction, but fact tonight, Erica Hill?</s>HILL: What's that?</s>ZAHN: About nine thumbs up from the studio -- all of them males, I might add -- on your hair.</s>HILL: Well, thank you. I will tell Funda (ph) upstairs, who did it for me.</s>ZAHN: All right.</s>ZAHN: I know you can get back to the serious business of journalism in our next break. Thank, Erica.</s>ZAHN: Appreciate it.</s>HILL: Thanks, Paula.</s>ZAHN: Could you believe that anybody would actually show up at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq and shout something like this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are a hell-bound minister of Satan.</s>ZAHN: These people aren't against the war in Iraq. So, what are they thinking? And, a little bit later on, who has been stealing human bodies, and why? Before that, numbers eight and seven on our CNN.com countdown.