Last week, 32-year old Armando Pablo Ochoa, of Payson, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to ten years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. FBI officials say Ochoa admitted to using a weapon, along with co-defendant, Ryan Pearson, to rob $652,000 in cash from the Mazatal Casino on the Tonto Apache Indian Reservation. The FBI says, in July of 2018, Ochoa and Pearson entered the casino armed with handguns and demanded that employees open a vault. When they did not receive immediate compliance, Ochoa and Pearson each fired a round from their weapons. Both Ochoa and Pearson were employees of the casino at the time. Pearson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and is scheduled for sentencing in April.
