August 12, 2026

Couple sentenced in ATM robbery

A Las Vegas couple who received a small share of a $1.1 million ATM repository heist will spend the next year in prison.

Riley Bates, 24, and Naomi Stachowsky, 21, also must repay $10,000 each in restitution and serve three years of supervised release, Assistant U. S. Attorney Walter Green said.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro sentenced the couple Friday. He could have given them anywhere from 12 to 18 months in prison.

According to authorities, Riley Bates' brother, Robert Bates, 26, and Timothy Blackburn, 26, robbed a Bank of America ATM repository in December.

More than $50,000 in cash from the robbery was found in a trailer shared by the Bates brothers and Stachowsky, and most of the rest of the money was found in a doghouse at the Blackburn residence.

Blackburn died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in August. He had escaped from the North Las Vegas Detention Center and rather than go back to jail he killed himself, his wife and two small daughters during a standoff with police.

Robert Bates pleaded guilty last month and faces a minimum of 22 years in prison when Pro sentences him in January.

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