No jail time for armory thefts

Senior Judge William K. Sessions told Yule he will be on federal supervised release for three years and will need to spend the first four months in home confinement.

The judge told Yule that as part of his community service young people need to hear the defendant’s observations about making mistakes and facing the consequences.

Sessions also said Yule will be required to make restitution to taxpayers for an amount to be determined. The loss was initially pegged at $180,157, according to the defense.

However, Yule voluntarily surrendered almost $29,000 worth of stolen property after his arrest, records show. The defense said that was part of his acceptance of responsibility.

The prosecution and defense are expected to determine a final figure within 60 days.

Yule, who had two deployments overseas, declined comment as he left court.

Yule told the court that when he was deployed in 2007 to Afghanistan he had not been infantry trained, but when more people were needed on the front lines he ended up volunteering.

“I volunteered not knowing the full ramifications,” he said. Three out of five good friends that served in the unit ended up getting divorced, Yule said, but fortunately his wife supported him.

He said it took two years for him to recover upon his return home.

Sessions, who served in the U.S. Army, appeared flabbergasted that Yule had ended up in the fighting when not trained.

Yule had transferred from the Arizona National Guard to Vermont in July 2014 and had spent 24 years with the guard before it came to an end last year.

Yule said he found he was “drowning in debt.”

The indictment said Yule obtained large quality of new military supplies, including parkas, duffel bags and boots and put them up for sale on eBay between March 2017 and March 2018.

He initially pleaded not guilty in April 2019 to three counts of embezzling taxpayer property and three related counts of mail fraud at his old job.

Yule eventually pleaded guilty on Nov. 7, 2019, to one count of mail fraud as part of a plea bargain.

The defense said Yule made about $32,000 from his fraud.

The Vermont National Guard gave Yule a general discharge under honorable conditions on March 15, 2019, court records show.

Attempts to reach Vermont Adjutant General Greg Knight about the case were unsuccessful.

General Electric in Rutland immediately hired Yule on the third shift, but he was permanently furloughed due to COVID-19 in June, Sessions was told Monday. He is now drawing unemployment, Assistant Federal Defender David McColgin said.

Yule’s wife, Brooke, their six children, ages 3 to 17, and his in-laws were among those attending the court sentencing. His wife and father-in-law, Kjell Einer Anderson, spoke on his behalf about being a good father and husband.

Brooke Yule said since his arrest, “he has grown so much. We need him.”

Yule apologized to the court and said he stole in an effort to get out of a financial hole that made it hard to pay the bills, including heat for the residence.

Sessions said the monthly interest on the $40,000 to $50,000 in credit card debt had to be overwhelming.

McColgin asked that Yule get a pass on any prison time, noting his service to the country and his obligations at home as the sole provider.

He noted Yule had been deployed to Afghanistan and to Qatar in 2012 to 2013.

McColgin said Yule has publicly acknowledged his crime and is not likely to repeat.

McColgin, in his sentencing memo, wrote the Yules have strong support at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Shrewsbury, where the defendant had served as president of the Sunday School.

Yule joined the Montana Army National Guard at the age of 17 and went to basic training the summer of his junior year in high school. The family moved to Arizona his senior year and after graduation he finished his Advanced Individual Training.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eugenia Cowles and Spencer Willig said in a court memo they thought a sentence of up to 15 months in prison was appropriate.

They noted that after Yule obtained his position of trust, he stole pallets full of uniforms and boots from National Guard soldiers that he was expected to supply.

An Army audit showed he was not making much money because he was selling items below the unit cost to the military.

“Ammon Yule’s abuse of his position for his personal benefit cost taxpayers a significant amount of money and damaged public confidence in the institutions Yule had pledged to serve,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.

A sentence between 27 and 33 months was proposed by the federal sentencing guideline, which are advisory. They noted the abuse of a position of trust.

Sessions said he would make adjustments downward based on the information

Among the terms of his supervised release is no more charges on credit cards or opening any new accounts, Sessions said.

The three mail charges said Yule had the U.S. Postal Service deliver various stolen items to the armory at 2143 Post Road. They included 40 duffel bags on March 24, 2017, along with 48 parkas on April 21, 2017, and another 48 parkas and 66 pairs of boots on March 6.

The other three charges maintain Yule “knowingly embezzled, stole, purloined and converted to his own use” the same items on the identical dates, the indictment said.

Yule developed a scheme at his job that allowed him to order large quantities of uniform items from the Lexington, Kentucky, Logistics Operations Center, the indictment stated. It noted he had the property shipped to his attention at the Rutland armory.

Yule sold most of the stolen gear on eBay, where he maintained an account advertising “new, official U.S. government-issue uniform items” for sale, the six-page indictment stated.

The government agreed after the sentencing to dismiss the other five pending felony charges.