Grand jury indicts four in ATM heist

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 11:53 a.m.

A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted four people arrested two weeks ago in connection with the Dec. 21 robbery of a Bank of America ATM repository in which $1.1 million was taken.

Robert Arthur Bates, 26, and Timothy Lee Blackburn, 25, were indicted on charges of armed robbery, carjacking and unlawful use of a firearm.

Both men were ordered held without bond when they made their initial court appearance Jan. 4 before U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt.

Riley Aruda Bates, 24, who is Robert's brother, and Naomi Lynn Stachowsky, 22, were indicted on a single charge of possessing more than $50,000 in stolen bank funds.

Cash from the bank robbery was found in the trailer shared by the Bates brothers, Stachowsky and several others.

At the time of their arrest, Deputy U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick also filed charges of being accessories after the fact against the younger Bates and Stachowsky, but the federal grand jury did not include that in their indictment.

Zlotnick was unavailable for comment.

Riley Bates and Stachowsky have been free on a person recognizance bond since their initial court appearance.

U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt set a federal arraignment for the four to appear Jan. 22 at 8:30 a.m. in Hunt's courtroom.

The FBI has said more suspects are being sought in the robbery, one of the largest in Las Vegas history.

A spokesman for the agency could not be reached for comment.

Though the suspects were not charged in connection with another bank robbery earlier in the day on Dec. 21, investigators have said two of the ringleaders who were arrested may have taken part in that heist as well.

Robbers took $79,000 from Colonial Bank, 7451 W. Lake Mead Blvd.

Zlotnick has stated authorities believed the suspects in the Dec. 21 robberies were staying in town to rob one more bank and then were going to leave the jurisdiction.

Authorities said most of the money in the automated teller machine repository robbery was recovered.

Most of the money was found in bushel bags stuffed in a dog house in the back yard of Blackburn's residence, officials said.

Robert Bates was arrested in a suite at the Luxor hotel-casino, where investigators say more than $5,000 in cash, a number of weapons and drugs were found in a room he had been staying in for several days.

More than $50,000 was found at the Bates' trailer.

In the ATM repository robbery, investigators said three members of a family that works for a janitorial cleaning service were kidnapped around 9 p.m. on Dec. 21 and taken to the vault where cash is kept for ATM machines.

The bandits were armed with two chrome handguns and a sawed-off shotgun, investigators said.

Using the janitorial services' keys, they said, the bandits broke into the repository and waited for a Loomis truck to arrive to pick up cash from the repository's vault.

A Loomis guard was wounded in the robbery when one of the bandits took the guard's gun from him. The wound was not life-threatening.