Boyum sentenced for robbery plea

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- One of the five New Ulm teenagers facing charges in the robbery of Valley Bank & Trust's South Branch last fall received a sentence of six months in the county jail for his involvement.

Adam Michael Boyum, 18, entered a guilty plea to receiving stolen property in Brown County District Court on March 4. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery in that agreement. Both charges are considered felonies under state law.

Boyum was given a stay of execution on a 15-month prison term in exchange for the county jail time, 10 years of probation, a $2,000 fine and $11,423 in restitution.

Boyum was one of the first people questioned by the FBI in the days following the bank robbery, during which time he admitted having a role in the Sept. 27 robbery.

According to court records, Boyum told the FBI about the preparations that he and the others involved in the robbery made the night before it happened and about the aftermath of the robbery.

On the day of the robbery, Peter Clayton Wingate, 18, of rural Courtland, walked into the Valley Bank &Trust branch on South Broadway and demanded money after he threatened to use a hidden gun. Wingate got away with about $81,000 in cash, according to the FBI.

Boyum earlier admitted that Wingate gave him more than $3,000 for his role in the robbery.

Wingate, Boyum and three others were arrested in a late-night raid on Wingate's rural Courtland home a few nights later. Police recovered most of the stolen money in that raid.

Recently, Rodenberg denied a motion to try another suspect, Jeremy Bruce Blank, 18, of New Ulm, as an adult because he had minimal involvement with the plan and the robbery and had only one prior criminal offense on his record. Rodenberg also ruled that the juvenile justice system provided adequate punishment and that an adult prison sentence would only "continue ... his present pattern of aimlessness."

Rodenberg is also considering a motion made by attorneys representing another suspect, Gary Thomas Dey, also 18 and from New Ulm, to suppress evidence gathered in the investigation. Rodenberg is expected to issue a ruling in the Dey case within 90 days.

The cases for the remaining suspects -- Amber Marie Cottrell, Jesse Warren Miklas and Peter Clayton Wingate, all 18 and from New Ulm, are at various stages in court.

Cottrell was sentenced on Feb. 24 to a juvenile treatment center in Duluth. Miklas is set for a jury trial in Brown County in May.

Wingate, who entered a guilty plea to armed robbery charges in U.S. District Court, is awaiting sentencing in Minneapolis.