Heroin users sentenced for 16 robberies
Daniel Begin CLEVELAND — said the robberies started in mid-September after his girlfriend lost her job.
He told investigators that Casey Layne Liberty decided to hold up a bank to feed their heroin addiction after the couple ran out of money. The Cleveland-area couple committed 16 robberies of banks, restaurants and stores within five weeks, making off with $6,598 before Elyria police arrested them on Oct. 23, the FBI said. The robberies stretched from Findlay to Conneaut.
A federal judge sentenced the couple Tuesday to nearly six years in prison, after they pleaded guilty to more than a dozen charges, including multiple conspiracy and robbery counts. U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson also ordered them to pay back all the money they stole.
Begin, 33, told FBI agent Jack Vickery in October that both he and Liberty, 31, committed the robberies to fuel their drug habit, according to an affidavit Vickery wrote in November.
He told the agent that Liberty didn’t want him involved at first, but that he did not want her going alone if she actually tried to pull it off. He went along to ensure her safety, the agent wrote.
Liberty, an Amherst resident, and Begin, who lived in Cleveland, picked a bank in Ashtabula County, partly because it was far away from where people knew them.
They carried out their plan the afternoon of Sept. 19. Liberty walked into the Andover Bank in Conneaut, wearing a black Halloween wig and carrying a bag. She approached a bank teller and presented an index card that said “Armed Robber outside. Hand me all your money and no one will get hurt,” according to court filings.
The teller gave Liberty $1,764. She ran out and met up with Begin, who was in the driver’s seat of Liberty’s Chevrolet Cobalt. Begin later told Vickery that he didn’t realize they were specifically in Conneaut for the robbery.
With the first heist a success, they decided to keep going.
Liberty robbed a Chase Bank in Medina on Sept. 28, a First National Bank in Beachwood on Oct. 4 and a Chase Bank in Fairlawn on Oct. 12. She never showed a weapon but told the tellers she had one, authorities say.
Begin served as the getaway driver for each bank heists, but the roles reversed when they started going after smaller targets.
He robbed several fastfood restaurants in Northeast Ohio, including Subway, Mr. Hero and Domino’s Pizza. He held up a 7-Eleven and a GameStop, authorities say. The couple bought a BB gun and Begin used it for some of his robberies.