A former employee of an armored truck company who participated in a series of robberies in the Atlanta area was sentenced to three years and nine months in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said today.
Veronica Bullard was also ordered to pay $104,694 in restitution and will spend three years on supervised released after pleading guilty to one count of Hobbs Act robbery, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates’ office said in an emailed statement. Bullard was previously employed by Dunbar Armored Inc. and provided insider information to the co-conspirators in the series of robberies between October 2010 and March 2011, Yates said.
“Bullard chose to endanger many of her co-workers’ lives as well as guards from other armored car companies,” Yates said. “The inside information she gained in her position at Dunbar Armored, Inc., a local armored truck service, fueled a crime spree that left one man dead and another seriously injured. She thought nothing of the escalating violence in each attack. Instead, she continued to abuse her position and access to information all motivated by pure greed.”
Bullard provided information to co-defendants Quentin Booker and Stacey Dooley about the location and amount of cash handled during Dunbar Armored cash pick-ups, and the information was used to rob couriers, prosecutors said. During the robberies, one or two gunmen would approach a courier after the courier picked up cash from a location or was about to restock an ATM machine with cash, according to investigators. Other members of the robbery crew would act as lookouts during the robberies, with one being the designated getaway driver.
In addition to Bullard, the following defendants have also entered guilty pleas as a result of their roles in the robberies:
• Ashley Henderson, 30, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to five counts of Hobbs Act robbery and three counts of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison.
• Stacey Dooley, 37, originally from Charlotte, N.C., pleaded guilty to six counts of Hobbs Act robbery and two counts of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
• Quentin Booker, 36, of Douglasville, pleaded guilty to five counts of Hobbs Act robbery and two counts of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison.
• Edwin Thornton, 31, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to three counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of carrying and using of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 15 years and 10 months in prison.
• Michael Johnson, 31, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
• Ronnie Little, 22, of Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison.
• Desiree Jones, 29, of Snellville, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully transferring a firearm knowing it would be used in a crime of violence and received a sentence of five years in federal prison.
• Derrick Powell, 26, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of carrying and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18.
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