A man who was part of a coin and jewelry heist ring operating out of Las Vegas who helped steal nearly $59,000 worth of items from Wayne Miller Coins in March 2024 was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay about a quarter-million dollars in restitution to the Helena shop and five others the theft ring stole from.
Bishop Lott, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris on May 28 in Great Falls after he pleaded guilty in January to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, according to court records.
Following the March 2024 burglary at Wayne Miller Coins — in which Lott, Ricky Rynell Rose and potentially another person made off with $58,629 worth of coins and precious metals from the shop on Last Chance Gulch — other local law enforcement agencies in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Arizona connected previous burglaries at similar coin and jewelry stores to Lott, Rose and at least three other men, according to court records.
Burglary at Wayne Miller Coins
Courtesy, Helena Police Department Facebook
Through search warrants, Helena police discovered Lott had traveled from Las Vegas to Helena for the burglary, then back to Las Vegas. Lott was arrested by the FBI on May 24, 2024, as was Rose.
Court records show Lott had originally entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors last year but violated his conditions of release twice. He eventually reached another plea agreement with prosecutors in January.
They also showed that Lott had been arrested numerous times since he was a teenager, largely for burglary and theft, across several states, and had spent time in prison. Along with his federal charges, he was originally charged with burglary in Lewis and Clark County, though that count was later dropped.
Rose pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 39 months in prison. After Lott finishes his 27-month federal prison sentence, which includes a residential drug treatment program at a facility in Louisiana, he will have to serve three years of supervised release and pay back $276,153.08 in restitution to the six businesses in the West, according to court documents and the U.S. attorney's office for Montana.
Blair Miller is the managing editor of the Helena Independent Record and Montana Standard. Prior to that, he was the editor of the Montana State News Bureau, a reporter at the Daily Montanan and reporter, editor and photojournalist at news outlets in Denver, Albuquerque and mid-Missouri.
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