Suspects in $1 million heist to stand trial

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 11:36 a.m.

Two men charged with robbing a Bank of America ATM repository of more than $1 million in December pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court this morning.

U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt ordered Las Vegans Robert Arthur Bates, 26, and Timothy Lee Blackburn, 26, to stand trial beginning at 8:30 a.m., March 22, on charges of armed robbery, carjacking and two counts of unlawful use of a firearm.

Two other Las Vegas residents pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing stolen bank funds and were ordered to face trial at the same time.

The two, Riley Aruda Bates, 24, who is Robert's brother, and Naomi Lynn Stachowsky, 21, also had been charged with being accessories after the fact at the time of their arrest about 10 days after the robbery.

However, a federal grand jury, which indicted all four suspects, declined to indict the younger Bates and Stachowsky with the accessory charge.

Riley Bates and Stachowsky are free on a personal recognizance bond while Robert Bates and Blackburn -- described by authorities as the two ringleaders -- are being held without bond.

More than $50,000 in cash from the Dec. 21 repository robbery was found in a trailer shared by the Bates brothers, Stachowsky and several others.

Investigators said most of the money was found in several bushel bags stuffed in a dog house in the backyard of Blackburn's residence.

More than $5,000 was found in a suite at the Luxor hotel-casino where Robert Bates was arrested, said an FBI spokesman.

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

Though the suspects were not charged in connection with another bank robbery earlier in the day on Dec. 21, investigators have said Robert Bates and Blackburn may also have been involved in that one as well.

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

Deputy U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick has said authorities believe the suspects were staying in town long enough to carry out one more robbery and then were going to leave town.