An initial appearance is scheduled for July 18 for an Elkhorn man charged with conspiring with his half-brother to burglarize the Vegas Club in the Town of Darien where he worked in 2017.
Richard B. Gillett, 35, was charged June 26 in Walworth County Circuit Court with burglary of a building or dwelling and attempted theft, both as a party to a crime.
According to the criminal complaint, the owner of the Vegas Club reported a robbery attempt on Jan. 7, 2017. Video surveillance showed a man enter the rear door to the business, head to the office area but become startled when he saw the owner, who was not expected to be there, and move back to the entryway where he bladed his body against the door and extended his arm toward the office while holding a gun, according to the complaint.
Outside surveillance showed the man walking in the parking lot toward the club and running through the parking lot 27 seconds later toward Highway 14, the complaint states.
Police found footprints leading to the back of a storage barn on a neighboring property and found a pair of sweatpants on the ground that were taken into evidence and later shown to contain the DNA of Tyler Smith, Gillett’s half-brother, and Smith’s girlfriend, according to the complaint. Gillett was seen in court in Milwaukee wearing a jacket similar to the one worn by the robber, the complaint states.
In March, Gillett’s girlfriend, who also worked at the club where Gillett was the manager, said she found text messages between Gillett and Smith on Gillett’s phone that implicated them in the robbery, according to the complaint. The woman said she confronted Gillett, who said the Vegas Club owner “had millions and what difference did it make?” the complaint states.
In the text messages, Smith talks about both he and Gillett needing money and Smith needing $2,000 to prevent his girlfriend, a dancer at the club, from being arrested for owing child support, according to the complaint. Gillett told police the conversation was about a landscaping business venture he and Smith were considering, the complaint states.
