With a plea bargain all but signed, sealed and delivered Montego Bay Bandit Anthony Vera said he wants to “come clean” about the first successful robbery of a Wendover casino in 70 years.
In an exclusive interview with the High Desert Advocate, Vera claimed that there were at least six persons involved and that he did not commit the actual robbery. But the biggest bomb Vera dropped was that very little of the $81,000 stolen was ever recovered by police.
“My lawyer, Gary Woodbury, says I should take the deal,” Vera said. “I would plead ‘no contest’ to a burglary charge and get one to ten years in prison. If I don’t and we lose at trial they would hang the habitual criminal tag on me and that would be a life sentence. But the thing is I was in Salt Lake when the crime happened. Yes I was involved but the most of what I did was a gross misdemeanor. I have a girlfriend and a baby on the way. I just don’t know what to do.”
According to Vera he has had two previous felony convictions one for burglary and one for robbery. He finished a ten and a half year sentence in 2012.
“I was at Ely and then at Carson,” he said. “I got out in 2012 and came to Wendover.”
Woodbury confirmed that it would very likely that Vera would indeed be classified as an habitual criminal and would get a life sentence if he lost at trial.
Vera was captured at his girl friend’s house near Tucson, Arizona on March 13 one month after he along with Elbert Woodson allegedly robbed the Montego Bay Casino.
“The West Wendover Police Department, in a collaborated effort, with the United States Marshals’ Office, Northern Utah J.C.A.T Team, State of Utah Department of Public Safety, State Bureau of Investigation Division, and the Tucson Arizona Police Department, located, and took Anthony Matthew Vera, into custody without incident in the Tucson Arizona area late in the afternoon of March 13th, 2014. ” wrote West Wendover Police Chief Burdel Welsh in a press release.
Woodson was captured within hours of the crime after a high speed chase on I-80 and subsequent crash in rural Herriman, Utah.
“The suspect vehicle continued toward the Salt Lake Valley and one person exited the vehicle near Bangerter Highway, south of Salt Lake City International Airport. The person exiting was later identified as an adult female.” Welsh wrote in a previous press release. “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. The female’s identity is being withheld, pending prosecutor’s review of the case. The female is currently listed a as witness. Ongoing investigation may determine if she was a party to the criminal activity.”
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. I know I have seen it and if you saw it you could see that the robber is not me.”
According to Salt Lake county jail records there was indeed a Lauren McCartney arrested on February 13th 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 police reports the robber was wearing either a mask or face paint during the crime so identification is impossible. However according to Woodbury the body type of the robber is not close match for Vera.
“It isn’t a close match because it isn’t me.” Vera said. “Like I said I was in Salt Lake when it went down. As soon as I heard about it me and another guy took off toward Wendover. I was on the overpass right at the road block the cops set up. I was the one who told Elbert about the road block that is why he turned off the freeway. I couldn’t have known about the road block if I was coming from Wendover could I? The only thing they have placing me in the casino at the time of the robbery is Lauren’s testimony. Why they believe her and not charge her I really don’t know.”
According to Woodbury, Vera is correct in the fact that much of the state’s case against his client is based on McCartney’s testimony as Woodson refused to cooperate with police against his alleged accomplice.
While Vera claims he was not at the casino during the robbery he did admit that he had been there a week before during a previous attempt to rob it.
“It didn’t work out,” Vera said. “The original plan was to go to the Bonneville Gardens Apartments but I guess Elbert decided to go to Salt Lake.”
The bandits had a stroke of luck when for unknown reasons neither the UHP trooper nor the Tooele County Sheriff’s Deputy normally on duty in Wendover gave chase to the fleeing robbers. The robbery was called into the West Wendover Police dispatch almost immediately after the robbers fled the scene said Chief Welsh, and as matter of course was immediately relayed to Tooele Dispatch for the Utah agencies.
Instead it would be another hour and more than 80 miles east of Wendover that the two men came under pursuit from a UHP trooper near Grantsville.
The official account of the pursuit and the capture of both Woodson and McCartney may lend credibility to Vera’s claim that he was not one of the robbers.
While the car was reported to have slowed down twice during the high speed chase, only McCartney was seen leaving the vehicle. In addition Utah law enforcement combed both areas with tracker dogs and men and Vera was not discovered.
“It was snowing and raining the ground was covered in mud and I have a real bad knee and can’t run. You don’t think they would have caught me if I was there?” Vera said. “They didn’t catch me because I wasn’t there.”
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.
According to Woodbury only $3,400 was recovered from Woodson’s car after it crashed leaving a little over $75,000 unaccounted for.
“You do the math,” Woodbury said.
“I am in a really tough spot,” Vera concluded. “I am being asked to plead no contest to avoid a life sentence for something I didn’t do and the woman who was part of it would be the one to send me to prison for life if I lose at trial.”
Even if Vera’s claims are true the fact that he was actually working in the casino and had a gaming card has lead many to question the Gaming control Board efficacy on back ground checks.
“I am not saying anything about this case,” said one local gaming executive. “ But the guy had two convictions for robbery and less than a year after he gets out of prison, he is cleared by the state to work in gaming? That doesn’t seem very smart.”
Vera sentencing hearing if he takes the plea bargain has not yet been set.