A Des Moines man was sentenced to 20 years in Webster County District Court Monday for his part in the robbery of three Fort Dodge hotels in 2007.

Victor Lee Overs, 24, was sentenced to 10 years for first-degree theft and five years each for two counts of assault while participating in a felony.

Overs was one of three men charged in the robberies of the Best Western Starlite Village Inn, 1518 Third Ave. N.W.; the Budget Host Motel on U.S. Highway 169; and the Days Inn Motel, 3040 Fifth Ave. S.; in July 2007.

The hotels were robbed in almost identical situations on three different days. In the early morning hours of July 9, 2007, Overs, Nathaniel Altman, 20, and Marion Brooks, 20, walked into the Best Western Starlite Village Inn and assaulted the night clerk at gun point. They pulled cash out of a drawer behind the counter and left.

During Brooks' trial, he told the judge that he helped Altman take a cell phone and money clip from the clerk at the Best Western Starlite Village Inn, threaten and push the clerk from the Budget Host Motel and kick a third clerk from the Days Inn Motel during the robberies.

A few days later the same men robbed the Budget Host Motel. They then robbed the Days Inn Motel at gunpoint several days after the second robbery.

Altman and Brooks were also charged in the robberies and sentenced.

Brooks was sentenced to 20 years in prison for first-degree theft and two counts of assault while participating in a felony.

Altman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for first-degree theft and five years for aiding and abetting assault while participating in a felony.

As part of a plea agreement for his part of the robbery at the Best Western Starlite Village Inn, Altman's sentence for both charges was to run concurrently, or at the same time.

Overs was sentenced as part of a plea deal and the fines were waived, but he will be required to pay restitution to the victim and the costs and surcharges for the trial.

Contact Katie Williams at (515) 573-2141 or katie@messengernews.net