The Barbie Bandits: “Blond Justice?”
The Bald Truth’s Art Harris Reports On The “Barbie Bandits:” a happy ending?
By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved
Marietta, Ga., March 25—-Once, the so called “Barbie Bandits” ranked right up there as pop stars of crime. Now they’re raising questions about “blond justice.”
Caught on grocery store bank security cameras outside Atlanta last year, Ashley Nicole Miller, 19, and Heather Johnston, 20, gave the FBI’s bank robber profile a rewrite: blond, ex-church-going gals gone wild.
Both sported designer shades, smiled and giggled as they slipped a threatening note to the Bank of America teller (who we later learned dicated it), and made off with $11,000 in cash.
After divying it up with criminal mastermind Michael Darrell Chastang, 28, (who Tuesday was sentenced to 10 years in prison for cooking up the inside job, plus the 15 years he’s now serving for drugs), the two “Barbies” ditched their disguises and headed for Lenox Mall, and upscale Phipps Plaza for a shopping spree.
First stop for the most wanted fashionistas, their $2,500 in loot burning a hole in their purses: ritzy Carter Barnes hair salon for some blond, Buckhead highlights. They did leave a nice tip, and, according to press accounts, even dropped a dime or two on a homeless guy.
Law enforcement put out a nationwide bulletin to be on the lookout for the “Barbie Bandits,” who got the nickname after telling the hair stylist they wanted to be blond as a Barbie doll.
According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, their u-tube bank teller video drew 38,000 views as the internet darlings enjoyed a short-lived life on the lam.
Soon, the wayward pals were behind bars, with Heather, who had been headed for college on a tennis scholarship, revealing to her shocked family a secret life as a stripper with all the trimmings– drugs, booty shaking and rock ‘n roll.
In our exclusive www.artharris.com video, pastor Danny Rager (Woodland Hills Assembly of God Church) tells me he hopes Heather’s saga will save other teens from stepping over the line, and believes she drew the lightest sentence of the gang—10 years probation, restitution and a fine–because she confessed before anyone else and “took responsibility for her part.”
But talk in the cafes and pizza parlors dotting the historic town square in Marietta, Ga. suggested not just enduring fascination with a local “Bonnie and Bonnie,” hometown girls gone wild, but some shock and awe over what some saw as light sentences for the two “Barbies,” especially probation for Heather.
The two women, both blond, drew less time than prosecutors recommended; the two African American men, Chastang, whose lawyer said he will appeal, and the teller, each received more than five years in prison.
According to The AJC, Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Tuesday made Chastang’s 10 year sentence consecutive with 15 years on a separate drug conviction. He deserved more hard time, she said, for concocting the theft and manipulating others as “pawns.”
Bank teller Bennie Herman Allen III drew five years in jail, five on probation. He’d plead guilty, said prosecutors, but refused to totally rat out Chastang as promised in plea talks.
Miller, the other “Barbie,” got two years in prison and eight on probation, less time than recommended even though she’d been in trouble before. As a first offender, she could have her record expunged if she stays straight; the same goes for Johnston, too.
According to the AJC, Heather told the judge, “I know I hurt my family. I hurt my church family, and I hurt a lot of people that I love.”
Judge Staley announced she saw little difference between the dufus desperadoes, except Heather had cooperated fully before anyone else.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I can’t belive the girls got such light sentenses especiallt Heather with probation she should have served some time for what she did, Bank robbery is a felony and with their records expunged for this how will anyone know they robbed a bank. They could pull the same thing again with one of them being a teller since the robbery will not show on their record once their probaion is over and they stay out of trouble.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
PPS I guess ten years probation is a long time but Heather should still have served her time also.It will really surprise me if both stay out of trouble that long. Time will tell Would be interesting to look at both in about seven years and see how both are doing and what kind of jobs they could find to support themselves
March 26th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
this is ashely’s new mugshot from Georgia state pen…
dawn
March 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
sounds like that commercial with identity theft, I would not even waste my valuable web space with scummy girls like this Art. Their story is just not worth it, or is their behavior…
April 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
[...] Art Harris wrote an interesting post today on The Barbie Bandits: â��Blond Justice?â��Here’s a quick excerptAfter divying it up with criminal mastermind Michael Darrell Chastang, 28, (who Tuesday was sentenced to 10 years in prison for cooking up the inside job, plus the 15 years he’s now serving for drugs), the two “Barbies” ditched their … [...]