prosecutors say they held up three businesses during a four-day crime spree. gathers pled not guilty but has three prior robbery convictions. >> armed robbery just been something that always came natural as a first instinct. my first armed robbery was a mexican market. i went in there and demanded money, and i seen the power that i had when i looked into their eyes. >> gathers said he never physically harmed his robbery victims but acknowledges having scarred them in other ways. >> i understand that i did scar them probably for life because it will be a memory never forgotten. you can hear it in their voice. >> what? >> you can hear -- you can hear them pleading, you can hear them pleaing, and you can hear them wanting to cry out, but they don't want to seem sort of weak in too vulnerable in the situation they're going through. >> what about their eyes? >> their eyes? >> what did you see? >> their life.