Dougherty Gang's Plan: Flee to Mexico

The “Dougherty Gang” had a plan: Rob a Georgia bank, then flee to Mexico. Youngest sibling Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21, was apparently the “mastermind,” a detective says, and came up with the idea the day he was sentenced for sending sexually explicit text messages to an 11-year-old and would have to register as a sex offender. The trio, which also included Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, planned to get fraudulent documents to facilitate their escape, the AP reports. They had made their way through about $1,000 of the $5,200 they stole before getting caught, authorities say.

Instead, their cross-country escape attempt led to alleged shoot-outs with police in Florida and Colorado and possibly two car thefts in Utah before they were ultimately caught in Colorado last month. Their travels also brought them through Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi, where they got lost because they refused to use their GPS for fear of being tracked. During a hearing yesterday, an FBI agent testified that at least nine firearms, ranging from AK-47s to pistols, were found in or near the Doughertys’ car; all were loaded except one. The siblings told agents, however, they only intended to disable police vehicles and not to injure any officers. (More Dougherty Gang stories.)