Las Vegas man pleads guilty in $1.1 million theft

Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

A Las Vegas man has pleaded guilty to stealing $1.1 million from an ATM repository.

Robert Bates, 26, was charged with armed bank robbery, carjacking and unlawful use of a firearm.

According to the plea memorandum, Bates and Timothy Blackburn, 25, kidnapped three members of a bank cleaning crew Dec. 21, 1998, and took them to the repository to wait for an armored truck. The two men ordered the crew to go about their cleaning duties in order to deceive the armored truck guards.

When the guards arrived, Bates and Blackburn forced them to hand over the money. As the guards were being disarmed a gun went off and a bullet hit a guard in the abdomen. The guard survived.

Bates claims his accomplice was to blame for the shooting.

In August, Blackburn escaped from the North Las Vegas Detention Center and eluded capture for almost three weeks, until police found him at a Budget Suites motel. During a standoff with officers, Blackburn killed his wife, the couple's two young daughters, and himself.

Authorities said most of the stolen cash was recovered from Blackburn's home shortly after the heist.

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