Texan, 40, enters guilty plea in federal court to ATM thefts

A third Texas man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen U.S. currency and two counts of transporting stolen U.S. currency in connection to two ATM burglaries in Arkansas that occurred during a rash of ATM thefts in December 2019 and January 2020.

Steven Jadon Williams, 40, of Dallas appeared Friday before U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller by videoconference link from the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, Tenn., where he and his co-defendants have been held since their arrest in January. Miller appeared by videoconference from his office in Helena-West Helena.

Williams was arrested Jan. 16, 2020, with three other Dallas residents — Antonio Denard Few, 35; Christopher Landelle Burns, 32; and James Darron Miller, 33 — after a federal grand jury indicted the four, alleging they drove to Oklahoma and Arkansas to break into ATMs in Walmart stores, including in Conway and Benton. Few and Miller entered guilty pleas to all three counts in January and Burns is scheduled to go to trial in July.

The four men reportedly embarked on a string of crimes that began in December 2018 and ended in January 2019, hitting ATMs in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Federal authorities said the suspects used vehicles rented in Dallas to travel to the two states, communicating by cellphone to orchestrate the thefts.

At the time of their arrests, authorities seized 15 firearms — eight handguns and seven rifles — about $15,000 in cash, a currency counter and several crowbars, bolt cutters and heavy-gauge cables with hooks.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Siobhan O’Leary said that during the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2019, four men, dressed in black and wearing masks, broke into a Walmart Neighborhood Market store in Conway and using yellow pry bars, broke into the ATM there and made off with $7,520 in cash.

Later that morning, O’Leary said, a Shell Superstop in Benton was broken into by what appeared to be the same group. This time, she said, the store’s safe and cash register were also broken into and the ATM was stolen.

She said the ATM, which was later recovered, empty in New Boston, Texas, had contained $4,000 to $5,000 and another $1,500 was taken from the safe.

The third count stemmed from an incident on Jan. 23, 2019, in which Longview, Texas, police, responding to a break-in call at a Walmart Neighborhood Market, gave chase to the burglars.

Upon sentencing, Williams could receive a maximum of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine on each of the two stolen money transport charges.