Armored Truck Driver Gets Five YearsPrison For Decade-Old Heist

LAS VEGAS - (03/31/06) – A former Loomis armored truckdriver who drove away from a Las Vegas casino with $3 million ofbank and credit union cash–then spent a decade on the run inEurope–was sentenced Thursday to five years in three monthsin federal prison. Heather Tallchief, now 34, told a federal judgeshe accepted responsibility and wanted to make amends for the 1993heist from in front of the Circus Circus casino of cash headed forBank of America and Nevada FCU. Tallchief promised to reimburse thearmored cash carrier and its insurer with any proceeds from aHollywood deal she is negotiating. Tallchief returned from hidingin the Netherlands last September and gave herself up, claiming noknowledge of the whereabouts of her partner, convicted killerRoberto Solis, or the $3 million. She said she wanted to return tothe U.S. to raise her’s and Solis’s 11-year-old son.Tallchief said she was seduced by Solis into getting the job withthe armored carrier, then pulling off the heist. With good behaviorand time already served since she turned herself in Tallchief couldbe out of prison by the end of 2009.