The woman implicated by thieves but never charged by police in the Montego Bay robbery of last year was herself arrested in Wendover over the weekend for selling prescription drugs.
Lauren McCartney, 39, of Draper, was allegedly attempting to conduct a sale of illegal narcotics to another patron when police arrived to the Wendover Nugget Sunday. According to reports McCartney consented to a search her belongings and police found some prescription narcotics. McCartney was taken into custody for possessing the narcotics without a proper prescription.
McCartney’s bail was set at a total of $35,000 on seven counts of prescription drug sales.
McCartney was the state’s star witness against Tony Vera and Elbert Woodson for the Montego Bay robbery last year. According to prosecutors McCartney was an accidental tourist in the getaway car driven by Woodson. In speeds excess of 100 mph Woodson drove toward the Salt Lake Valley. One person, later identified as McCartney exited the vehicle near Bangerter Highway, south of Salt Lake City International Airport. She was later interviewed by, investigators from the West Wendover Police Department, and the State of Utah Department of Public Safety and the State Bureau of Investigation Division.
Woodson was captured within hours of the crime after a high speed chase on I-80 and subsequent crash in rural Herriman, Utah.
Far from being a victim Vera insisted, the woman was part of the crime. And that without her it never would have been.
“Her name is Lauren McCartney,” Vera said. “She got up on the stand during Elbert’s hearing and said she was kidnapped at gun point to go with him. That’s not true she was part of it. There is a video of her in the casino watching when the cash box was being delivered and then her making a call just before the robbery.”
According to Salt Lake county jail records there was indeed a Lauren McCartney arrested in February 2014 on warrants for ‘criminal trespass, theft, forged writing device, unauthorized control of a motor vehicle.’
The charges were however dropped and McCartney was later released and became the state’s start witness against both Vera and Woodson.
According to sources close to the investigation it was McCartney who first named Vera as the bandit.
According to Vera it was McCartney who first knew about the cash box and the time when it would be delivered to the casino cage.
“Her boyfriend is a pit boss at the Montego, that’s how she found out and told us,” Vera said. “She even knew the amount $81,000.”
According to sources Vera was also employed at the Montego Bay at the casino’s cage. Only $3,400 was recovered from Woodson’s car after it crashed leaving a little over $75,000 unaccounted for.
Both Vera and Woodson jumped bail after they were arraigned. Vera was captured in Las Vegas this March and sentenced to eight years in prison. Woodson has not been located. But in a related development Woodson has sighted in Salt Lake City according to the Elko County Sheriff’s office and an arrest is considered imminent.
