Robber gets 8 years for $8M theft

The then-Liberty chief cited ‘stupidity’ as one reason for capture.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORT

AKRON — Roger L. Dillon — who will spend eight years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million from an armored car company in Liberty — told U.S. District Judge John R. Adams on Thursday that the heist was a stupid thing to do.

“I can’t look back and justify what I did,” Dillon, 23, of Youngstown said in federal court. “Things seemed hopeless, and this seemed like a way out.”

Dillon must make $50,000 restitution and, once out of prison, serve three years’ supervised release. He and his two co-defendants must each also pay back $1,435 from the theft.

Dillon and his live-in girlfriend, Nicole Boyd, 25, pleaded guilty in March to bank larceny and other charges in what federal prosecutors said was one of the largest thefts ever in northern Ohio.

Dillon and Boyd, who say they are still in love, committed the crime because of financial hardship, which included the foreclosure of their house.

“I couldn’t see all the good things I had in life,” Dillon said. “I was focusing on the bad things. I can’t believe I let it all go for the money.”

Dillon’s mother, Sharon Gregory, 49, who conspired with the couple and fled with them to West Virginia, was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday. The Youngstown woman also must do three years’ supervised release after prison.

Judge Adams gave her a lighter sentence because she didn’t participate in the actual theft, didn’t know the amount of money involved and because of her desperation from a longtime crack addiction.

“I wish I had stopped my son from doing what he did,” she tearfully told the judge. “I just didn’t stop him, and I’m ashamed of that.”

Judge Adams had sentenced Boyd to five years in prison Wednesday. Dillon got a longer sentence because he organized the heist at AT Systems on Tibbetts-Wick Road in Liberty, recruited others to help him and violated the trust of his employer, the judge said. Dillon had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.

John Comello, an investigator for Montreal-based Garda World Security Corp., which owns AT Systems, asked Judge Adams to give Dillon the maximum sentence.

Dillon, who earned $10.25 an hour as a driver/messenger at AT Systems, used another employee’s security code Nov. 26, 2007, to pull a truck into a garage, load it with bags and reset the alarm. He also removed a surveillance video.

Events leading up to and including the heist, according to FBI Special Agent Guy Hunneyman’s affidavit, follow:

Dillon and Boyd told friends they were going to move out of Ohio. Boyd dropped off personal possessions to her mother and to her ex-husband, who has custody of their child.

On Nov. 25, Boyd’s father attached a bed cover to her purple 1999 GMC pickup truck. It was dark and cold, but Boyd and Dillon’s mother insisted it be done that evening.

Sometime during the day on Nov. 26, Boyd and Gregory bought a 1999 black GMC Safari van from a used-car dealer in the Youngstown area and asked that the seats be removed. The dealer said they had arrived in a purple pickup truck.

Around 8 p.m. Nov. 26, Dillon called the cell phone carried in the armored car making the last delivery of the day and spoke to the driver, asking when the two-man crew would return from their run because he forgot his paycheck at work and needed to get back in. The driver said it would be awhile and he’d call Dillon when they returned.

At 8:20 p.m., AT Systems was entered using the PIN code assigned to employee Andrew Jackson, according to ADT security records. The same PIN code was used to “re-arm” the facility at 8:44 p.m. Jackson recalled that, about a week before the burglary, while he was using his PIN code to enter the building, Dillon was standing behind him. Jackson believes Dillon saw the PIN code at that time. Jackson was later given a polygraph, and his answers showed no deception.

Images on a back-up surveillance webcam in an office appeared to be 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.

The last-run driver called Dillon’s cell phone around 10:50 p.m. to tell him they were back at AT Systems, but the call went to voice mail. Also at 10:50, the armored car crew detected the smell of vehicle exhaust/gasoline and saw tire tracks in the bay of the facility.

The crew alerted the branch manager, who told them to check the two locked safes. Both safes were empty.

On Nov. 27, the day after the theft, Dillon didn’t show for work and didn’t call off. During nearly 10 months on the job, he had only one unexcused absence, explaining that he misread the work schedule.

Also on Nov. 27, trash left at the curb at Dillon and Boyd’s residence was taken to the FBI field office. The trash included business and legal papers, among them Boyd’s birth certificate.

On Nov. 28, Boyd’s mother entered their apartment to check on the welfare of pets. No pets were there, and she noticed several items missing, including clothes, two computers and a computer game console.

The next day, Boyd’s purple pickup was found abandoned in Salem.

More details emerged after Hunneyman’s affidavit.

Receipts in the purple pickup led the FBI to Pipestem, W. Va. Dillon, Boyd and Gregory were arrested in a mobile home there at 4:30 a.m. Dec. 2. The FBI found the loot stacked in the trailer where the three had holed up.

About $6.7 million in cash and more than $1 million in checks was taken; all but $3,500 was recovered.

The plea agreements 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.