Catoosa Teachers Federal Credit Union is pictured in this Google photo.A Virginia woman who robbed the Catoosa Teachers Federal Credit Union in 2012 was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Friday.
Pelaralyss Young, 27, also must serve five years on supervised release, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Young and her partner in crime, Laron Burns - a 45-year old Michigan man sentenced to 18 years and three months in prison in April - also were ordered to pay $166,340 in victim restitution, U.S. Attorney John Horn said in the release.
"We hope the resolution of this case will help restore the victims and citizens of Ringgold to feeling safe, and will deter anyone else from this senseless violence," Horn said.
On Dec. 20, 2012, Young and Burns entered the credit union in Ringgold, Ga., wearing dark clothing and masks and armed with fake air pistols. Burns jumped over the counter, knocking over a female bank employee in the process and breaking the woman's leg.
Burns made the employee crawl at gunpoint into a room containing the bank's safe. All the other employees were forced into the room and had their cellphones taken.
Young and Burns timed the robbery to coincide with a cash delivery, and left with $170,000 in cash.
"Young and Burns targeted a small town credit union at a time when they thought it would be most vulnerable-the Christmas season," Horn said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Catoosa County Sheriff's Office and Ringgold Police Department investigated the case.