Woman gets 5 years for role in $8M heist

Boyd and Dillon were captured in West Virginia.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

AKRON — A woman who helped her boyfriend steal about $8 million from an armored car company in Liberty has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Nicole Boyd, 25, of Youngstown was sentenced Wednesday in federal court by U.S. District Judge John R. Adams. She must make $1,435 restitution and, once out of prison, serve three years’ supervised release.

Boyd admitted to investigators that she stole the money with Roger Lee Dillon to escape financial hardship. Boyd and Dillon pleaded guilty in March to bank larceny and other charges.

Boyd faced a maximum of 25 years in prison but was expected to receive less under federal sentencing guidelines. Boyd’s attorney noted that his client had no prior criminal record.

Federal prosecutors said the heist last November was one of the largest thefts ever in northern Ohio.

Dillon, 23, and his mother, Sharon Lee Gregory, 49, of Youngstown, are scheduled to be sentencedtoday.

Dillon’s lawyer, in a sentencing memorandum, asks that he receive no more than four years and nine months in prison. Federal prosecutors want at least 12 years.

Gregory could get up to 15 years after pleading guilty to charges that she conspired with the two and helped the couple make their escape with the money to West Virginia.

The FBI has said the theft at AT Systems on Tibbetts-Wick Road was timed so that large amounts of money would be available after the busy post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend.

Dillon had been employed by the company for about nine months as a driver and messenger.

On Nov. 26, Dillon, disguised with a cap and hood, entered the building using another employee’s security code, the government said. He removed a security videotape and kept the lights off in case there was another camera.

He pulled a truck into a garage, loaded it with bags and reset the alarm.

About $6.7 million in cash was taken, according to an FBI agent who detailed the allegations in court in January. The rest was in checks.

Although the surveillance videotape was taken, a webcam recorded a man taking the key that opened the videotape box.

To Tim Vargo, AT Systems branch manager, the image on the webcam, a back-up surveillance camera in an office, appeared to be the armored car driver/messenger Dillon, based on physical build and the way he carried himself, the FBI said.

The multimillion-dollar theft at AT Systems took place between 8:20 and 8:44 p.m. Nov. 26, according to ADT security logs.

Investigative findings, such as the webcam image, are contained in an affidavit FBI Special Agent Guy Hunneyman wrote to obtain arrest warrants for Dillon and Boyd.

The couple drove to Pipestem, W.Va, where they met Gregory. The trio spent part of the next four days counting the money, and the FBI — tipped by West Virginia receipts found in Boyd’s abandoned pickup truck — showed up one day later.

The cash and checks were found stacked in a mobile home. All but $3,500 was recovered.

The plea agreements filed in March disclosed that Dillon financed the plan with $50,000 smuggled out of a JP Morgan Chase Bank in Akron on Aug. 8 during an armored-car pickup.