PHOENIX — Cynthia Mary Roberson is an unemployed mother who police say led her 12- and 14-year-old sons and their friends to commit at least 20 armed robberies and assaults, including the beating of a teenage boy who had nothing more than an orange lollipop.
Her motivation was purely financial. Police said she needed money to pay rent and the loan on her Chevrolet.
In every case, the mother drove the getaway car and once coached a kid during a robbery because he was having trouble stealing a cellphone from a victim, police said.
The case has outraged authorities and the public and drawn comparisons to “Ma Barker,” the infamous mother who led her four young sons on a robbery spree in the early 1900s.
“In the days of the Depression, Ma Barker took her sons and they robbed banks and did this and did that for a living until they got caught,” said Phoenix police Detective James Holmes. “Now I’ve got this lady with her kids and her crew of other bad guys and they’re pretty much robbing people all because she didn’t have a job.”
At the time of her arrest in late May, the 51-year-old Roberson lived in what police described as a filthy Phoenix apartment with her two sons, ages 12 and 14, and five other young boys and men between 14 and 20 years old.
Phoenix police say Roberson had recently lost her job and persuaded her sons and the others living with her to commit robberies to help pay for rent and her car loan.
Phoenix police Sgt. Phil Roberts described Roberson as the ringleader.
“I think she absolutely had a lot of influence,” Roberts said. “She’s driving them out, telling them how to do it — basically saying, ‘Let’s go out and let’s commit a robbery tonight,’ and then instructing some of the suspects on how to do the robbery and how the robbery should go down.”
Roberson remains in jail and declined to speak with The Associated Press. Her attorney, Raymond Kimble, said he had just been assigned to her case and was not yet able to comment.
Roberson pleaded not guilty to one count each of armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and attempted aggravated robbery.
She is scheduled for an initial pretrial conference July 30. If convicted, she faces between seven and 39 years in prison. Her kids and their friends also were arrested.
