Prisoner-turned-actor gets 15 more years in `dynamite' robberies

[Brian Damage]

A man who learned acting in prison - and won a role on "Law and Order" when he got out - was sentenced Monday to 15 more years for a new set of robberies in which he threatened to blow himself up if his demands were not met.

David Wayne, 48, of Croton-on-Hudson, had admitted in court that he was "The Bomber," who claimed to be wrapped in dynamite - actually highway flares - while holding up Westchester County stores and hotels last year.

He pleaded guilty in April to robbery and attempted robbery.

During his previous 14 years in prison, also for robberies, Wayne took part in a "Rehabilitation Through the Arts" program at Sing Sing and "was probably the best of those who actually became good actors through the program," said Katherine Vockins, the retired executive who launched the program.

After his release in 2005, he worked at a Veterans Affairs Hospital, doing storytelling and creative writing projects as therapy. He did some local acting, including in a play called "The Exonerated," which tells the stories of innocent death-row inmates.

In May 2006, using the name David Wayne Britton, he appeared on "Law and Order," playing a once-imprisoned author who denounced racism and gang violence.

But he was arrested again Dec. 1 after a patron at a drug store he robbed recognized him from a police sketch. He was accused of several robberies or robbery attempts in which a man opened a coat to reveal what looked like dynamite sticks wrapped around him and demanded money.

At the time of the arrest, Vockins said that when Wayne studied acting, he was "totally committed to making it as an actor with no backup plan if that didn't work."

"It's dangerous when people have a dream and they have no backup plan," she added. "That's my concern for anyone coming out of prison."