Woman enters an Alford plea in theft of lottery tickets

Friday, February 1, 2008

A Nevada woman agreed to accept an Alford plea in Vernon County Circuit Court to a class C felony of theft.

On Thursday, 50-year-old Debra Gilmore was accused of stealing $2,307 worth of Missouri State Lottery tickets from her employer, between the dates of July 1 and Aug. 2, 2006.

According to a police report filed by Nevada Police officer Kevin Doyle, on Aug. 7, 2006, Alan Shepherd, owner of 54 Cafe in Nevada, filed a theft report with Nevada police.

Shepherd claimed that Gilmore was the only employee of the business to run the cash register on the dates tickets went missing.

Upon contacting Missouri State Lottery officials police learned that on the questioned dates Gilmore was assigned to work the cash register, 54 Cafe took a loss ranging from $224 to $417.50. Ticket sales for the days in question were between $347 and $558, while the average ticket sales for days when Gilmore did not work were between $2 and $26.50.

Shepherd said, that the dates when Gilmore worked were the only dates 54 Cafe's sales from lottery tickets did not match sales receipts from the register.

Among the stolen tickets were seven winning tickets, which were accounted for and found to be cashed in at several local businesses.

Gilmore was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $2,636.50 in court fees and restitution.

An Alford plea is made when the defendant does not plead guilty; however, they believe they would be found guilty in a trial.

The amounts won from the seven cashed tickets were not available at press time today.

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