Five charged in

VB&T robbery

Court documents show

that accused conspired

in planning robbery

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Prosecutors in Brown County are charging that the Valley Bank & Trust robbery on Sept. 27 was the result of a conspiracy among five friends.

Criminal charges were filed Friday against five New Ulm teen-agers who allegedly helped accused bank robber Peter Clayton Wingate plan and execute the robbery even though they tried to convince him not to carry out his plans.

Wingate, 18, of Courtland, was indicted in St. Paul on armed robbery charges by a federal grand jury on Oct. 16. He was arrested when law enforcement raided his rural Courtland home just three days after the robbery.

Federal court documents claim Wingate walked into the bank, located at 1823 S. Broadway, during the middle of the day and threatened to shoot a bank teller if his demands weren't met.

Friday's complaints claim the crime was the result of a plan Wingate made with another friend anywhere between two weeks and a month before the actual robbery.

The complaints, filed in Brown County District Court, say Wingate had the help of four other people that were paid accomplices who received a share of the robbery loot.

Those four -- Jeremy Bruce Blank, 18; Adam Michael Boyum, 19; Amber Marie Cottrell, 16; Gary Thomas Dey, 18; all of New Ulm -- are now facing felony charges at the state level.

Dey and Boyum are each charged with one count of conspiracy of commit aggravated robbery and one count of receiving stolen property.

Cottrell and Blank, who was 17 at the time of the robbery, each face one count of aggravated robbery and one county of receiving stolen property. The county plans to have Cottrell and Blank certified to stand trial as adults.

Warren Miklas, 18; of New Ulm, the fifth person charged in connection with the robbery, faces one count of receiving stolen property.

The five have yet to appear in court on the charges, said Brown County court officials.

They were charged on a state level because federal prosecutors weren't interested in bringing charges against anyone not involved with the actual robbery, said Brown County Attorney James Olson.

"The investigation is complete and now charges are being brought, and I guess we'll have to see what happens," said Olson.

The five were charged according to their involvement with the crime.

The charge of receiving stolen property carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

The conspiracy charges for Boyum and Dey carry a penalty of 10 years in prison and a $17, 500 fine.

The FBI questioned Boyum about his involvement in the robbery hours before Wingate's arrest on Sept. 30. He allegedly told investigators that he, Dey, Blank and Cottrell met Wingate in a trailer at New Ulm Mobile Village -- on Sept.. 26, the night before the robbery -- where Wingate allegedly told the others about his plans, according to the criminal complaint. The plan allegedly was to set a diversion while the robbery took place.

The criminal complaints say that on the day of the robbery, Cottrell and Blank gave Wingate a ride to the north side of town, where Wingate reportedly started a car fire. Cottrell and Blank drove Wingate back to Blank's trailer, where he reportedly changed clothes and listened to some music, and then they transported him to the Valley Bank & Trust's branch office on South Broadway.

Wingate hid in the woods across from the bank's parking lot. Blank brought Wingate his cell phone and then left him. The complaint said Wingate talked on the phone to Cottrell and Blank and even questioned whether or not he should go through with the robbery plan. Wingate later told FBI agents that Blank encouraged him to commit the robbery during their conversation.

Wingate waited until the bank lobby was empty before he entered and made his demands, taking bank employees into the vault area, where he removed the money and escaped.

The complaints say Cottrell and Blank went back to the bank in Cottrell's car while the robbery was in progress. Cottrell told investigators she went back to the scene to try to discourage Wingate from going through with the robbery.

After the robbery, Wingate left the clothes he wore during the robbery in a backpack along with the rifle and a laundry bag filled with exactly $81,579 in cash in the woods near the bank.

Everybody but Miklas met at the trailer later that evening and went looking for the money, but reportedly couldn't find it because it was too dark, the complaints state.

Boyum and Wingate went back into the woods the next day --Sept. 28 -- and found the clothes, money and the rifle. The complaint said they spent $3,000 during a shopping spree in Mankato before splitting the money up among Blank, Cottrell and Miklas.

The money, clothes and rifle were recovered at Wingate's rural Courtland home during a raid on the evening of Sept. 30. Wingate was also arrested at the scene of the raid. The complaints say Boyum's statement led to the search warrant.

In a subsequent interview with the FBI and New Ulm police, Wingate gave investigators new details about the planning of the robbery.

The complaints said he and Dey had talked about planning a robbery as early as May and the Valley Bank & Trust branch on South Broadway was chosen because of its size.

Dey reportedly knew the age of the employees and the layout of the bank, including where the location of the security cameras, the complaint states. Wingate and Dey allegedly decided there was in between $45,000 and $65,000 in the vault, given the size of the bank. They also talked about creating a diversion on the north side of town to distract police just before the robbery.

Wingate allegedly told the FBI that Blank, Boyum and Cottrell agreed to participate after he and Dey explained the plan, but decided that Wingate was going to be the only one to actually enter the bank and commit the robbery even though all of them would share the loot.

The complaints state Blank, Boyum, Cottrell and Dey admitted their individual involvements with the robbery during interviews with FBI and New Ulm police.