The wife of a man convicted in a two-state crime spree in 2003 will spend a year in jail for aiding and abetting his armed robbery of $238,000.

St. Croix County Circuit Judge Eric Lundell also sentenced Debra Ann Wiegand, 30, of Hudson, Wis., to 15 years' probation. Lundell told Wiegand she could be serving a harsher sentence, if not for her young son.

Wiegand pleaded no contest in December to armed robbery, the functional equivalent of pleading guilty.

Her husband, Zachary, was sentenced in November to 26 1/2 years in prison for robbing two security guards in Hudson on May 29, 2003, and setting fire to the stolen getaway vehicle. He had also been convicted in Washington County for the attempted murder of a Lake Elmo woman while trying to steal her car the night before the robbery.

Very little of the money that Zachary Wiegand stole in the robbery was recovered, said District Attorney Eric Johnson. Debra Wiegand's sentence includes paying restitution of the stolen money.

KEVIN GILES