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GREENSBORO - After days of tearful testimony from frightened bank tellers, a jury found a member of the "Bluetooth bandits" guilty of 22 crimes in connection with a 11/2-year armed robbery spree.

Christopher Brian Collins, 36, of Greensboro was found guilty Thursday of 22 charges in connection with nine armed bank robberies and a robbery at Celebration Station.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation gave the group its nickname because of the wireless devices that could be seen in the ears of some robbers in surveillance videos.

"It was not cut-and-dry for us," jury forewoman Lisa Jones said after the jury was dismissed. "There was a time I was afraid we would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict."

Collins was charged with 10 counts each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. He also was charged with attempting to discharge a firearm into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The "Bluetooth bandits" committed nine robberies at local banks in 2006 and 2007. More than $500,000 in cash was stolen. The other robbery was at Celebration Station, where Collins shot at the windshield of an occupied pickup, prosecutors said.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about two hours before returning their verdict.

Jones said she felt pulled emotionally between the tearful testimony of frightened bank employees and the sight of Collins' 2-year-old daughter - whom a guilty verdict would leave fatherless - in the courtroom.

Jones said she cried at home Wednesday night after the day's testimony, upset by what she had heard but not sure she could find Collins guilty.

"Several of us kept saying, 'If he gets off ... if he does it again. ...' "

But after reviewing a photo of Collins alongside images from security cameras at the banks, the jurors were all convinced of Collins' guilt.

"It was a really hard case," Jones said. "I'm just glad he's off the street."

Collins did not testify at the trial, and his attorney, Graham Holt, did not present any evidence or call any witnesses after the prosecution finished presenting its case Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Wood presented testimony from people claiming to be Collins' co-conspirators in the robberies, bank employees who had been robbed and police officers, including Detective Jack Steinburg, who obtained a confession from Collins.

Wood also presented items taken from the home of Collins' girlfriend: two guns, cash and bags like those described by witnesses at the robberies.

"This man, in 18 months, committed a lifetime of crime," Wood said in his closing argument.

"Whatever he gets, he brought it on himself."

Holt said in his closing argument that the state had not met its burden to prove that it was Collins who had committed the robberies, and he encouraged the jurors to think critically about the unsigned confession the state used for evidence.

"These are a lot of serious crimes alleged, and (Wood) has no one putting Christopher Collins at the scene of these crimes," Holt said in his closing argument. "He hasn't been able to prove who did it."

But the jury was persuaded that Collins had committed each of the 22 crimes of which he was accused.

Collins' sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9:30 today.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com