Ohio woman gets 5 years in $8M armored-car heist

This undated photo originally provided by the FBI shows Nicole Boyd. A judge on Wednesday, July 23, 2008, planned to sentence Boyd, who helped her boyfriend steal more than $8 million from an armored car company. She faces a maximum of 25 years in prison but is expected to receive less under federal sentencing guidelines. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)

AKRON, Ohio—A woman who helped her boyfriend steal about $8 million from an armored car company was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.

Wiping away tears several times, Nicole Boyd told the judge in a quiet voice that she was sorry for what she did and learned a lot from it -- but that she still has feelings for her partner in crime, Roger Dillon.

"I still love Roger, but I need to focus on me and I don't know what's going to happen down the road," Boyd said. She added that she hadn't seen him since December -- the month they were arrested -- "and I'm OK with that."

Boyd, 25, and Dillon, 23, 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. Boyd told investigators she helped steal the money to escape financial hardship.

She had been expected to get less than the maximum 25-year prison term. Her attorney noted that she had no prior criminal record.

U.S. District Court Judge John R. Adams said Boyd had accepted responsibility and wasn't the mastermind of the plot. He also noted that Boyd, of Youngstown, has remained employed, been active in her church and has re-established a relationship with her 5-year-old son.

Dillon, a former driver and messenger at the armored car company, used another employee's security code on Nov. 26 to pull a truck into a garage, load it with bags and reset the alarm. Boyd sat in the truck and helped pull the bags inside, according to her statement to authorities.

About $6.7 million in cash and more than $1 million in checks was taken; all but $3,500 was recovered. The FBI has said the theft at AT Systems in Liberty, near Youngstown, was timed so that large amounts of money would be available after the busy post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend.

Five days after the heist, Dillon, Boyd and Dillion's mother, Sharon Lee Gregory, were arrested in Pipestem, W.Va., about 250 miles from the heist. The FBI -- tipped by West Virginia receipts found in Boyd's abandoned pickup truck -- found the loot stacked in a mobile home where the three had holed up.

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.

Boyd returned about $1,900 from the heist that she found among her possessions after she was released on bond earlier this year. The judge considered that at sentencing, as well as the fact that Boyd was abused by her stepfather and that her parents had abused drugs.

Dillon and Gregory, 49, were scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. Dillon could get a maximum of 25 years in prison; Gregory could get up to 15 years after pleading guilty to charges that she conspired with the two and helped the couple make their getaway.