Sidney woman sentenced to prison

A Sidney woman originally charged with 21 class III felony counts of burglary, was sentenced to serve 25 to 50 years in prison on a lesser charge of five class III felony burglary counts.

Mindy Richmond was arrested on June 11, 2015 after another woman, Tanya Yates, approached the Sidney Police Department and told authorities Richmond had carried out multiple burglaries.

According to court testimony, Yates provided police with a list of county residences that had been burglarized. Law enforcement officials were able to cross-reference some of the addresses with open burglary cases.

In an interview with police last summer, Yates said she had traveled with Richmond to numerous homes while Richmond burglarized them for prescription pills, money, jewelry and name brand clothing.

According to police, Yates had a notebook listing many of the houses burglarized in Cheyenne County, "but only ones that she knew the names of owners or residents."

The 11 page affidavit lists 42 residences that were allegedly burglarized, including what was stolen.

At some homes, nothing was taken, Yates told police. At others, however, the duo returned multiple times.

A home in Sidney was burglarized frequently "because Richmond knew children in the residence were struck by a vehicle and they would have pain medication," Yates told police.

At another address, "Yates advised that Richmond broke into [a law enforcement officer's] residence and was 'freaked out' because it was a police officer's house, but nonetheless, took pain meds from the residence," according to the affidavit.

The criteria used to select houses ranged from opportunistic to callous: Some homes were broken into because of information gleaned from social media postings, others because it was known the resident was ill or had died and there'd likely be prescription drugs on hand, according to a review of the affidavit.

In one instance, Yates told police Richmond portrayed herself as a director of home health to gain entry, and while in the residence, stole medication.

On May 23, Richmond entered a plea of no contest to five class III felony charges of burglary.

Appearing before District Court Judge Derek Weimer, Tuesday morning, Richmond was sentenced to serve five to 10 years for each of the five counts of felony burglary, to be served concurrently.