Juan Gutierrez-Zambrano, one of two people charged with robbing a Colorado casino—pleaded guilty in court last week.
According to 9News, Gutierrez-Zambrano “pleaded guilty to one felony count and one misdemeanor count of criminal mischief. Two felony theft charges were dropped as a result of the plea.”
Colorado’s biggest casino heist in history
I don’t have the video-editing or directorial skills to give you a Soderberg-style heist-movie overview of this particular case, so words will have to do. Gutierrez-Zambrano and his accomplice, Sabrina Eddy, allegedly pilfered $500,000 in cash from Black Hawk’s Monarch Casino in March 2023. The heist marked Colorado’s biggest casino robbery ever.
According to reports, Sabrina Eddy said she was contacted by someone posing as Monarch Casino’s operations lead. Another person posed as a cage manager and texted Eddy. The two convinced Eddy there was an issue with “a UPS order” and that they required cash to avoid the company breaking its contract. Eddy delivered the cash to a contact (believed to be Gutierrez-Zambrano) in a hospital parking lot.
However, Eddy’s story didn’t hold up, and she failed a lie detector test. The Denver Post reports that she originally claimed she was “just following orders.” She later claimed she was forced to participate in the theft by unnamed contacts of her late ex-husband.
Sentencing and Monarch Casino next steps
Gutierrez-Zambrano will be sentenced on April 12. Eddy’s hearing is scheduled to start on August 19, 2024. She is currently on personal recognizance bond until her trial date.
As for Monarch, casino management previously agreed to audit internal controls to help avoid similar snafus.
The employee-related heist came just weeks after the operator was fined $400K for employee misconduct related to Colorado sports betting. As that infraction involved proxy betting, the casino vowed to implement system upgrades to its sportsbook platform, including improvements on geolocation functionality.
