Associated Press
CNHI
WALSENBURG, Colo. —
The last of three siblings accused in a multistate crime spree was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison on charges related to their capture in Colorado.
Ryan Dougherty, 22, had faced up to 20 years after pleading guilty to five counts of menacing.
Earlier Monday, Dougherty's sister Lee Grace Dougherty received a 24-year prison term, while his brother Dylan Stanley-Dougherty was given 32 years.
The three are accused of shooting at a police officer and staging a daring bank robbery in a cross-country crime spree that included Georgia and Florida. The manhunt for them ended after an Aug. 10 freeway chase and shootout with police in southern Colorado.
The sentencing hearings effectively end the siblings' stay in Colorado as Georgia authorities await their extradition. The U.S. Marshals Service will transport them to Albany, Ga., for a May 15 court hearing.
Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, had faced up to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree assault and two counts of menacing. In court Monday, the judge told her that as the oldest of the three siblings, she should have shown better judgment.
"I'd like to say it was a lapse in judgment, but 10 days is not a lapse in judgment," Lee Grace Dougherty said. "It was bad, poor judgment."
The 27-year-old Dylan received the maximum prison sentence for his guilty plea to one charge of first-degree assault related to the chase and shootout in Colorado.
As part of plea deals, Colorado prosecutors agreed to drop multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder against the siblings.
In Georgia, the three face firearms and other charges in an Aug. 2 bank robbery in Valdosta. Witnesses say two men and a woman, dressed in black and wearing masks, entered a bank just over the Florida state line and fired shots into the ceiling. One carried an AK-47 type assault rifle and an automatic pistol, similar to weapons recovered after the siblings' capture in Colorado.
