Noble County Fair Treasurer Gets Five Years in Prison

Robin Lee Laymon was sentenced June 1, 2026, to five years in prison for stealing $367,225.03 from the Noble County Community Fair. Noble County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Jansen also gave the former volunteer treasurer a year of probation and entered a restitution judgment for that full amount.

The Kendallville nonprofit still opened the 2025 fair on schedule two months after her arrest, then staged another season in July 2026. By the first of those fairs, a public campaign to replace the stolen money had raised less than $300.

She Told Friends It Would Be a Slap on the Wrist

Laymon, 46, of Hudson, Indiana, had told more than one witness she expected a slap on the wrist, Noble County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Mowery told the court. On Monday, June 1, 2026, Jansen sent her to the Indiana Department of Correction on a single count of theft, a Level 5 felony, after a plea that capped executed time at six years. Mowery had asked for all six.

Once sentenced, she was to be held at the county jail until a transfer to the diagnostic center in Plainfield, then assigned to a prison of the state’s choosing. The judgment against her is $367,225.03.

For 140 uninterrupted years, through world wars, through the Great Depression, through every imaginable hardship, generations of Noble County families have gathered to celebrate their youth, their agriculture and their shared history. That 140-year unbroken chain has been placed in jeopardy by Robin Laymon’s greed.

Jim Mowery, Noble County prosecuting attorney, at sentencing

Mowery said that when Troy Rucker, then the fair’s president, faced the shortfall, he did not know how the basic lights and water at the fairgrounds were going to be paid for. Board member Noelle Gaerte, in a victim statement, wrote that the loss reached past the account and into children, families, volunteers, and a community that raises money for the grounds by hand.

FROM THE FIRST CHECK TO THE PRISON TERM

1. November 2024: Makes the first fraudulent withdrawal, less than three weeks after being named treasurer.
2. May 8, 2025: Thefts run through this date. Rucker contacts the Noble County Sheriff’s Department at 2:28 p.m.
3. May 9, 2025: Arrested on Level 5 felony theft. Bond is set at $2,500.
4. May 14, 2025: The board holds its first public meeting after the charge. Rucker says a couple thousand dollars is left.
5. May 28, 2025: The board opens a campaign to replace $367,000.
6. July 12-19, 2025: The fair runs in Kendallville as planned.
7. June 1, 2026: Jansen imposes five years in prison, a year of probation, and the $367,225.03 judgment.
8. July 11-18, 2026: The next community fair is held on the same grounds.

A two-day jury trial had been set for March 5-6, 2026. She resolved the case with the plea instead.

The Theft Outran a Year of Fair Revenue

The last full IRS snapshot before the withdrawals shows how small the books were next to the bill. The Form 990 for the year ending September 2024, filed November 25, 2024, lists Laymon as treasurer and Rucker as vice president, with James Mueller as president. Every officer is paid $0.

THE FAIR’S BOOKS AND THE COURT BILL

That year’s revenue came from $132,091 in program services, $107,533 in contributions, $46,454 in rent, and $7,112 in fundraising, against $321,425 in expenses and $480,760 in total assets. The year before, revenue was $251,729 and net assets were $497,285. The year before that, revenue was $257,894 and net assets were $516,896.

The $367,225.03 judgment is larger than the $293,280 the unpaid board took in during the last full year on file. It sits close to the $469,140 in net assets on that same return. At the May 14, 2025 meeting, Rucker said the directors were left with only a couple thousand dollars and that the hit was “a complete kick in the gut for us.”

Checks to Cash, $500 to $60,000 at a Time

Rucker went to the sheriff after a voicemail in which Laymon admitted she had borrowed from the board and had not paid it all back. Court filings quote her saying, “I borrowed some money from the fair board and I don’t have it all paid back yet. If you need to call the cops, I get it. I’m prepared.” Filings also say there was no sign she had repaid any of it.

Bank records and her own interview filled in the method. Fair officials told police she did not have permission to write checks to herself. The corporation also told investigators it does not hold Cash App or Chime accounts.

HOW THE MONEY LEFT THE ACCOUNT

• Paper checks: Multiple checks from the fair account went to herself or to cash.
• Withdrawals and transfers: She told police she took the money by writing checks, making withdrawals, and transferring money.
• Ticket size: She said the takes ran from $500 to $60,000 each.
• What she named: She told police the cash went for cocaine, pills, food, and bills.

Mowery, asking for the top of the range, added that she had allegedly told a friend she had $60,000 “squirreled away,” and told another friend she had bought a new identity and was getting ready to run. He told Jansen the damage funded personal debts, drug purchases, gambling, travel, and preparation for flight.

Kendallville Still Put on Two Fairs

Rucker spent the spring of 2025 promising the season would happen anyway. “We will have a fair this year,” he said after the arrest. “Me and others personally guarantee there will be a fair.” At the May 14 meeting he added that all deposits had been paid and that he had already talked with most of the event contractors. “We desperately don’t want to hurt the kids, you know, in this situation,” he said later, while the board tried to raise the stolen sum without turning the campaign into a profit.

The 2025 Noble County Community Fair ran July 12-19 at 580 Fair Street. Two days before the gates opened, the board’s campaign still showed less than $300 against a $367,000 goal. The GoFundMe campaign opened May 28, 2025 and called the effort a “desperate plea for help,” saying the theft had shaken trust as well as the bank balance.

The official site later 2026 fair dates of July 11-18 and thanked the county for staying with it. That week still carried camping, harness racing, 4-H, a parade, a queen pageant, and the rest of a full bill. Court filings have been clear on one split that mattered to families in the barns: the money taken does not involve 4-H money, and Noble County 4-H is a completely separate entity from the Fair Corp.

Who Absorbed the Hole in the Books?

The people who ate the loss were the unpaid directors who still had to keep grass cut, buildings rented, and contractors paid. Rucker said the spring campaign was meant to cover contractors and other bills, not to pad a surplus. Gaerte told the court that volunteers already give hours they do not invoice, and that the breach left people asking how it happened inside a group built on honesty and service.

The slate that now publishes its names is not the one on the 2024 tax return. The 2025-2026 volunteer board roster says the corporation is made up completely of volunteers, that seats are open, and that each director stands in for a local group.

THE BOARD ON THE BOOKS NOW

• President: Tammy Garrett. Rucker does not appear on this roster.
• Treasurer: Rhonda Kondas, listed for Church of the Tabernacle, the seat that used to be Laymon’s.
• Secretary: Noelle Gaerte, listed for the 4-H Exhibit Corp, the same board member who wrote the victim statement.
• Land voice: First vice president Mark Melcher is listed for EIAA, and a long block of other directors are listed for that association as well.

The Noble County Fairgrounds is owned by the Eastern Indiana Agriculture Association and leased to the Fair Corp, which then rents the site to 4-H, the Apple Festival, and other users. That landowner now occupies a thick share of the tenant’s board. The same grounds still take weddings, livestock shows, winter storage, and festivals; rental income was $46,454 in the year ending September 2024, one of the streams that has to cover lights and water when the checking account is thin.

Two Signatures Came After the Money Left

After the arrest the board said every check would need two signatures from members who are not the treasurer, and that monthly bank statements would sit in the treasurer’s reports. Rucker put it in plain language: the group was doing as much as it could so the same hole would not open again, and as much as it could for the county that uses the grounds.

Those rules do not collect $367,225.03 from a defendant serving five years. They also do not refill a campaign that, on July 10, 2025, still showed less than $300. What they do is change how a volunteer treasurer can move cash in a nonprofit that files its 990 with $0 in officer pay and still lists help wanted and open seats.

The Apple Festival dates of October 3-4, 2026, are on the same Kendallville grounds, along with bluegrass weekends and the rest of the year-round calendar. Jansen’s order remains a five-year term, a year of probation, and a restitution judgment of $367,225.03.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Was the First Noble County Fair Held?

Thirty residents organized it in 1855 after the state legislature allowed county fairs. The first gathering was on the Bassett farm northwest of Albion and took in $60, before later years in Albion and a Kendallville grounds era that began in 1883.

What Prison Term Can an Indiana Level 5 Felony Carry?

State law sets the prison term for a Level 5 felony between one and six years. Laymon was sentenced inside that window after pleading to a single theft count.

What Is the Noble County Community Fair Corporation’s Federal Tax ID?

The EIN is 31-1042442. The IRS recognized the Kendallville group as tax-exempt in September 1982, and donations to it are tax deductible.

Did the Stolen Funds Include 4-H Livestock Auction Money?

Court filings say no. Noble County 4-H is a separate program; the Fair Corp leases the Kendallville grounds from the Eastern Indiana Agriculture Association and then rents that site to 4-H and to other events, including the Apple Festival.