Butte man sentenced for armed robbery

BUTTE (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to tying up a Butte storeowner and stealing cash and guns then fleeing the state in a stolen car has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

District Judge Kurt Krueger sentenced Dale Wallace yesterday.

Wallace, 31, pleaded guilty in April to armed robbery for the Dec. 30 robbery of Coins N Cards in Butte. The owner told police that Edwards pointed a loaded gun at him, tied him up, and took cash and at least five guns. Prosecutors say Wallace and his alleged accomplice, Sarah Jo Johnson, fled in the store owner’s vehicle.

The FBI used cellphone data to track Wallace and Johnson to the Oregon coast. Police stopped the car they were in on Jan. 3, and Wallace fled on foot while pointing a gun at officers. An officer deliberately struck Wallace with his patrol car and Wallace was hospitalized in Portland, Oregon, for a time.

Johnson, 30, shot and killed herself after a five-hour standoff with police in Lincoln City, Oregon, officers said.

In a statement to the court, Wallace said meth addiction drove his crimes.

“I can never take back what I’ve done. I can never say sorry enough,” Wallace wrote in a statement to the court.

Tara Billteen, the state probation and parole officer who conducted the presentence investigation, said Wallace was nonchalant about the robbery because no one was injured. However, the store owner feared for his life and fears if Wallace is released from custody he will kill him.

Wallace was sentenced to five years with the Department of Corrections in 2008 for assault with a weapon committed in Missoula County in November 2007. He also has a 2002 forgery conviction in Lewis and Clark County.

“Mr. Wallace has gone through his life making victims,” said Michael Clague, deputy Butte-Silver Bow County attorney.