Montego Bay bandit Tony Vera avoided a life sentence and could leave prison in as little as three years ruled Elko District Judge Al Kacin Monday.
Kacin sentenced Vera to eight years in prison for his part in the Montego Bay robbery a year ago.
Vera was set to be sentenced on January 13 in plea bargain arranged by his attorney Gary Woodbury and Elko County District Attorney Mark Torvinen. According to Woodbury, Vera, would have pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and would have a received a six to ten year sentence.
Vera had been looking a life in prison sentence for being an habitual criminal.
But instead of going to prison for six years, Vera jumped bail and escaped temporarily.
A month later he was back in custody after being arrested in Las Vegas on a drug charge.
“He was arrested on February 20, 2015 at an apartment complex located in the 4800 block of Boulder Highway. Patrol officers conducted an investigatory stop and he ran from officers,” said Las Vegas Metro Public Information Officer Laura Meltzer. “During the search incident to arrest, multiple baggies of what was later determined to be methamphetamine was located on his person. He was booked for possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell and obstructing.”
Kacin gave no explanation as to why Vera did not receive the much harsher life sentence however the habitual criminal finding otherwise known as the “3 strikes” law has come under increasing criticism from jurists and legal experts as being expensive and counter productive to the interests of justice.
Nevada’s 3 strikes statute demands a life sentence for anyone convicted of three felonies. The law does not make a distinction between violent or non-violent felonies nor does it take into account either the felons incarceration history or the length of time between convictions.
While Vera committed his third felony about a year after he was last released from prison his record inside the system was not violent and according to some he was a “model” inmate posing little danger to either fellow inmates or to correctional officers. Still as an inmate it cost the state between $40,000 and $50,000 a year to keep him behind bars.
Vera along with accomplice Elbert Woodson robbed the Montego Bay Casino in February 2014. Woodson was captured after a spectacular car chase and crash the night of the robbery. Vera managed to make good his getaway and stayed on the lam for a month before being captured at his girl friend’s house near Tucson, Arizona.
While on the run, Vera gave an exclusive interview to the High Desert Advocate. In it, 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.
According to Woodbury only $3,400 was recovered from Woodson’s car after it crashed leaving a little over $75,000 unaccounted for.
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’s partner in crime, Elbert Woodson, did not attend his sentencing hearing either and his whereabouts are perhaps unknown. There is a $50,000 bounty for his arrest.
Unlike his much more flamboyant partner Tony Vera, Woodson kept his mouth stoically closed from the time he was arrested for robbing the casino to the day he made his $7,500 bail several months later.
However when the day came to be sentenced, Woodson like Vera a month before was a no show in Elko District Court.
Woodson and Vera were the first two thieves to at least be partially successful in robbing a Wendover Casino in over 75 years.