Prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against a former Monarch Casino Resort and Spa employee who took $500,000 in cash from the casino, conceding that the woman was scammed by likely international thieves.
During a court hearing Friday, prosecutors with the First Judicial District Attorney’s office said an extensive investigation into the theft revealed the casino employee fell victim to a likely international conspiracy to scam casino employees into removing money from the casino and delivering that money to thieves, and that similar schemes were perpetrated across the U.S. in the summer of 2023.
Prosecutors said they could not ethically proceed with the case against former casino employee Sabrina Eddy, who did not profit from the theft.
The half-million-dollar heist last year was the biggest casino theft in Colorado since gambling was legalized in 1991, state regulators said. Eddy was arrested and charged with a single count of felony theft after the March 12, 2023, heist — but she maintained that she thought she was doing what her bosses wanted when she loaded cash bricks of $50,000 into boxes in the middle of the night and handed them to a man she’d never met.
Prosecutors on Friday agreed with that characterization of events as they moved to dismiss the charges.
Eddy was working as a cage cashier at the casino on March 12, 2023, and was responsible for casino money. Shortly before 1 a.m., Eddy received a call on the casino’s phone from a man who claimed to be the casino’s head of operations, as well as texts from a man she believed to be her immediate supervisor.
The caller and texter told Eddy that the casino was having difficult with the UPS delivery of some important equipment. They explained that Eddy needed to bring $300,000 to a lawyer who would meet her at St. Anthony’s Hospital in order to protect the casino from being “in breach of contract,” according to an affidavit filed against Eddy.
Eddy then pulled bricks of cash from the casino’s cage and put them into boxes, which she packed with rags and then taped shut. She drove to the hospital’s emergency room and handed the cash to a man she believed to be the attorney.
After returning to the casino, Eddy received another text at 3 a.m. that explained the lawyer needed another $200,000, according to the affidavit. Eddy then loaded up more bricks of cash, drove them to the hospital and gave them to the same man, handing it over at about 4:30 a.m.
She was told to wait at the hospital after handing over the cash. But as she waited, Eddy attempted to call back the men she believed to be her bosses. When they did not answer, she called the casino, admitted she’d taken the money and said she was worried she might be arrested.
Eddy initially claimed she was scammed but later changed her story and claimed that associates of her dead ex-husband “forced her to engage in the theft after levying threats against her family members,” the affidavit reads.
In March, the man who received the cash from Eddy that night, Juan Ivan Gutierrez Zambrano, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal mischief — one a low-level felony and the other a misdemeanor charge. Prosecutors alleged Zambrano, a citizen of Mexico, was paid to receive the boxes of stolen cash.
An arrest warrant for a third suspect, who is not believed to be in the U.S., has been issued but is sealed from public view. Officials have declined to say whether any of the stolen money was recovered.
Monarch Casino Resort and Spa operates in Black Hawk, a mountain town about 40 miles west of Denver. The casino is owned by Reno, Nevada-based Monarch Casino and Resort Inc., which in February reported 2022 fourth-quarter revenues of $120.5 million.
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