Man betrayed by tattoo gets 9 years for casino robbery

POCATELLO, Idaho – A man whose distinctive hand tattoo helped betray him as a casino robber has been sentenced to nearly nine years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Idaho said Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced 28-year-old Dillon McCandless, of Blackfoot, on Friday for the July 2017 robbery of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Sage Hill Casino.

McCandless pleaded guilty in June to robbery and using a firearm during a violent crime.

Authorities said he pumped a shotgun, ejecting a shell on the floor, when he robbed the casino on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Surveillance video showed that the robber had a distinctive hand tattoo, and after police released the image in an effort to identify him, a Bingham County deputy sheriff and others recognized the suspect as McCandless.