Fort Hood army vet receives 18 months in prison for stealing $2.1M in military gear from embattled Texas foundation

A U.S. military veteran who pleaded guilty to thieving $2.1 million worthy of of army equipment from the embattled Texas foundation Fort Hood was sentenced last week to just a yr and a half powering bars. 

Jessica Elaintrell Smith, 30, experienced by now pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. federal government in April. As section of the plea deal, one more count on the indictment was dropped. 

Smith, together with co-conspirators Nathan Nichols and Brandon Dominic Brown, are accused of getting 68 PAS-13 scopes, 47 RT 1523 radios, 9 AN-PSC 5 radios, four PVS-14 scopes, a few-night vision products, 3 AN/PRC 117 radios, two receiver/transmitters and just one AN-VRC-90 radio someday overnight amongst June 16-17, 2021. 

Soldiers documented discovering locks minimize on 17 Conex shipping containers on the base, and an audit confirmed that a total of 137 products worthy of about $2.1 million have been missing. 

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Jessica Elaintrell Smith, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.  (Bell County Jail )

"It was a smash-and-get," Assistant U.S. Lawyer Joel Stacey Dunn explained on Tuesday, in accordance to The Killeen Each day Herald. "They took no matter what they could get."

Twelve suggests after the heist, an agent with the U.S. Military Felony Investigation Division found a number of of the stolen items matching the same serial number stated for sale on eBay. 

The primary gate at the U.S. Army submit at Fort Hood, Texas is pictured in this undated photograph, acquired on Nov. 5, 2009.  (REUTERS/III Corps General public Affairs/U.S. Army/Handout)

U.S. District Decide Drew Tipton on Tuesday sentenced Smith to 18 months in prison, followed by two decades of probation. She was also requested to spend $1.3 million in restitution to the U.S. Army. She was also requested to shell out the U.S. government $100 as aspect of a "exclusive evaluation." 

"I want a improved actuality," Smith said prior to her sentencing, in accordance to The Killeen Each day Herald. "I want to do greater in lifestyle, and I’ll never be in this predicament all over again."

Homeland Safety was granted a look for warrant for Nichol’s household in July 2021. Investigators found $1.23 million in money and stolen gear, as nicely as a mobile phone with conversations amongst Smith and Nichols dating back to March of that calendar year, in accordance to courtroom paperwork. Brown said he had accessibility to the foundation. 

Loved ones, pals and supporters of murdered U.S. Army Private First Course Vanessa Guillen rally on the Nationwide Shopping mall to contact for justice and for Congress to look into her loss of life July 30, 2020, in Washington, DC.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Brown, also an Military veteran, pleaded not responsible on Nov. 29, 2021. His case is set for jury demo in September. 

Nichols, having said that, pleaded guilty final 12 months and is envisioned to be sentenced in Oct. 

Smith experienced pleaded responsible in June 2014 to theft in Bell County though she was stationed at Fort Hood and was sentenced to 10 a long time of probation, in accordance to Stars and Stripes. 

She was deployed to Afghanistan that similar thirty day period and returned by November of that calendar year. Bell County prosecutors reopened her theft situation in 2020 when she was billed with felony family members assault, violating her probation terms. She labored as a contractor on the foundation at the time of the theft of radios, scopes, night eyesight goggles and other gear. 

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The June 2021 heist came a year right after the disappearance and on-foundation murder of 20-calendar year-previous Military specialist Vanessa Guillen on Fort Hood brought on a main shake-up for the sprawling army set up in Killeen, Texas. Investigations unveiled "big flaws" with the command local climate following a string of fatalities, suicides, and issues of sexual harassment.