Colorado woman imprisoned for leading two auto theft rings

A Greeley woman, the alleged ringleader of two auto theft operations that stole dozens of vehicles from residents and dealerships, was recently sentenced to prison.

But for half the time that most of the car thieves working with her received.

Amanda Johnson, 41, was sentenced in Weld County district court to 10 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections at the end of May. Prosecutors had asked the presiding judge to give her 48 years.

Meanwhile, five men who pleaded guilty to taking part in Johnson's schemes received between 18 and 21 years. 

Johnson's sentencing wrapped up two separate criminal investigations into two separate auto theft operations which she oversaw. One hundred vehicles were stolen in little more than a year between the two groups. 

In the first operation, Johnson and 45-year-old Jose Luis Pizarro represented themselves as interested car buyers to numerous dealerships in Weld and Larimer counties. They provided forged identifications and proof-of-insurance documents in order to take vehicles on test drives. They never returned the vehicles. 

Northern Colorado authorities nicknamed the pair's operation "Endless Test Drive."

The second operation was dubbed "No Keys, No Problem." Dozens of vehicles, mostly Hyundai and Kia models, were stolen from the Denver metro area. Johnson and four other people gained access to vehicles by stealing signals from the owners' key fobs. 

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"They did this as a part of a large-scale drug distribution ring and sold vehicles for as little as $200 a piece," Weld prosecutors stated in a press release.

All members of the operations were arrested in the months following grand jury indictments in 2022. Johnson, the only person involved with both auto theft operations, was charged with more than 200 counts. Those included felony racketeering, an organized crime statute. 

Pizzaro, her partner in the "Endless Test Drive" dealership scheme, reached a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced last March to 21 years in prison.  

Two of Johnson's co-defendants in the "No Keys, No Problem" operation pleaded guilty to numerous charges in April. Hector Rivera, 32, received 18 years. Ryan Yarwood, also 32, got 20. 

In June, a third "No Keys" defendant, 28-year-old Jacob Martinez, received a 20-year sentence. Martinez asked that his sentence be reconsidered by another judge when he learned he sentenced was half of Johnson's. That request was denied.

The fourth and last "No Keys" defendant, 28-year-old Austin Carlholm, was in court Friday. He changed his plea to guilty on one count of racketeering and 15 counts of aggravated auto theft. He, too, was sentenced to 20 years.

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Four different Weld judges handled the sentences in all the cases. Judges Meghan Saleeby and Audrey Galloway each sentenced two of the defendants. Judge Stephen Groome presided over one.

Judge Dinsmore Tuttle sentenced Johnson.

"The number of convictions here is overwhelming," Tuttle opined before handing down Johnson's 10-year sentence. "I am not sentencing Ms. Johnson for having committed aggravated motor vehicle theft once or twice or three or four or five times, but over 100 times. .... this was a vast amount of criminal activity. ... it was a massive undertaking with very little, if any, care about who got in the way, whose lives were trampled in the process, whose property was stolen, whose children's lives were uprooted because of their family not having the car. ... It was a grand scheme and it was carried out without any thought or any respect for the victims of the crimes."

He continued: "Ms. Johnson's lawyer says she was not out stealing the cars out in the community with the screwdrivers, more like an office manager. She was actually more like the kingpin. She wasn't a pawn. ..... She was the brains of this outfit."

Judge Tuttle wrestled out loud with the various elements he considered for Johnson's penalty, according to a transcript of the hearing. Those elements included Johnson's known drug addiction which motivated her role in the crimes, Johnson's hopes of raising her children, and the scant likelihood that Johnson would be able to repay thousands of dollars in damages to the victims if she were granted a sentence that allowed her to earn money. 

"There are many pieces to this," Judge Tuttle stated.

After Tuttle sentenced Johnson, Deputy District Attorney Ashley "Ash" McCuaig felt it necessary to confirm the judge's ruling.  

"Your Honor, I just want to clarify," McCuaig said. "The Court did say concurrent (terms to be served), so it is a 10-year sentence that The Court is imposing?" 

"Yes, it is," Tuttle answered.

CBS News Colorado requested through the Weld County Court Clerk's Office an explanation for the perceived differences in the sentences of Johnson and her cohorts. No has been received.