Venezuelan man sentenced for Kaukauna ATM theft, may face deportation
The fifth of six people charged with theft for the July 2024 robbery of a Kaukauna ATM was convicted and sentenced May 19.
Andres Escobar Rodriguez, 31, of Irving, Texas, pleaded no contest to theft of moveable property valued between $10,000 and $100,000, as party to a crime. Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Emily Lonergan sentenced him to a year in jail, according to court records.
Because Escobar Rodriguez's sentence includes "good time" — which means he is eligible to have 25% of his sentence reduced — he has no further jail time to serve on the sentence.
The robbery occurred at Unison Credit Union, 1000 W. Hyland Ave. in Kaukauna, on July 5, 2024. Six people were arrested and charged — Escobar Rodriguez, Manuel Piña Gonzalez, Yenaiker Avila Acevedo, Jesse Duque Escobar, Adonay Dalis Ramirez, and Johamnel Ortiz Sanchez. All have been convicted and sentenced for the theft except Ortiz Sanchez, who has an arraignment and plea hearing at 9 a.m. July 17.
At previous sentencing hearings, Outagamie County Assistant District Attorney Joshua Dryak said the six defendants were involved in a "theft scheme" to get money from older ATMs with security flaws. They downloaded malware onto the ATM, which allowed them to retrieve funds, and took $38,000 out of the machine, he said.
All the defendants but Dalis Ramirez had Venezuelan IDs, according to a criminal complaint.
The ATM theft became a talking point in local politics in the fall, after David Murphy, representative for Wisconsin's 56th Assembly District who was running for reelection, issued a news release stating he was concerned that five people arrested and charged with the theft were members of a Venezuelan gang.
His opponent in the November 2024 election, Emily Tseffos, slammed Murphy's statements as "irresponsible assumptions."
At multiple sentencing hearings for the defendants, attorneys and judges noted that the defendants may face deportation as a consequence of their conviction.
According to court records, Escobar Rodriguez and other defendants, must pay restitution totaling $33,400 to Stuart-Lippman and Associates Inc., and more than $11,700 to Unison Credit Union.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Venezuelan man sentenced for Kaukauna ATM theft, may face deportation
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