Teen Girls to Serve in State Prison for Robberies

Two teenage girls from Bethlehem convicted of acting as lookouts in a string of summer robberies from Allentown to Palmer Township will serve at least 28 months and no more than six years in state prison.

On Friday, Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito sentenced Ashley Eskaff and Ashley Horning – both now 18 – to 14 months to 28 months in prison for their part in four robberies in Bethlehem and one in Palmer, according to The Express Times.

However, he ordered their sentences to run concurrent to a 28-month to six-year sentence handed down for similar crimes in Lehigh County, the newspaper reported.

After she was arrested in July, Horning told Bethlehem police that she and her three accomplices robbed convenience stores “for the money and the thrill,” according to the arrest papers.

Horning, Eskaff and 19-year-old Luis Enrique Ortiz, also of Bethlehem, were caught on July 18 trying to commit yet another robbery at a 7-Eleven at 2930 Linden St., Bethlehem. A fourth robber, Isaiah Barker of Freemansburg, got away initially, but was captured by Allentown police later that day.

Barker and Ortiz are due for their Northampton County sentencings next month.

According to court papers, Horning and Eskaff admitted to police that they would go into the targeted stores before the robberies to scout them for customers and the location of video surveillance cameras, then bring the information back to Barker and Ortiz, who would hold up store clerks for cash and cigarettes.

The first robbery took place at the Rudy’s at 2500 Northampton St. in Palmer Township on July 13. Horning told police that they were out late at night driving, were bored and decided they needed money, the court papers say.

Eskaff told detectives that they didn’t believe they would get caught, the arrest affidavit says. “After we got away with the first robbery, we wanted to do more robberies,” Eskaff said after her arrest.