ASHEVILLE – Ashlyn Nichole Carothers, 23, of Cherokee, was sentenced on Thursday, Oct. 15 to 180 months in prison for her involvement in a robbery on the Cherokee Indian reservation, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger also ordered Carothers to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $30,166.45 as restitution.
According to court records and yesterday’s sentencing hearing, on or about September 30, 2012, in Jackson County, George Lee Nobles robbed and killed a victim outside a motel located on the reservation. Carothers acted as Nobles’ getaway driver. According to filed court documents, Carothers admitted knowing Nobles had stolen the victims’ purse and that later she and Nobles burned the victim’s purse but kept the $5,000 cash they had found in the victim’s wallet.
Carothers pleaded guilty in March 2014 to one count of robbery by force and violence within Indian Country and aiding and abetting. Nobles is currently facing charges for first degree murder and related offenses in state court.
Carothers has been in custody since October 2013. She will be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The Cherokee Police Department handled the investigation assisted by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gast and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Smith prosecuted the case. U.S. Attorney Rose was joined by Interim Cherokee Chief of Police James Dike Sneed in making this announcement.
– U.S. Attorney’s Office
