WaPo: 12-Year Term for 'Cell Phone Bandit'

[Penndems]

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 3, 2006; 1:00 PM

The woman who achieved brief national attention by robbing four Northern Virginia banks while chatting on a cell phone was sentenced this morning to 12 years in federal prison.

Candice R. Martinez, 20, repeatedly apologized during her sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, not only to her family and friends, but also to the bank tellers whom she victimized during her three-week crime spree last fall. One of those tellers appeared in court to tell U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee how she had been traumatized by the experience of being robbed, saying she had flashbacks of the incident and needed counseling.

Martinez's mother, Michelle Medina, also testified and spoke publicly about her daughter for the first time. Medina confirmed her daughter's turbulent upbringing in Santa Fe, N.M., which included drug use and two suicide attempts before Martinez turned 11, as part of a campaign by Martinez's lawyer to win her a lighter sentence.

But Lee, who last week sentenced Martinez's boyfriend and co-conspirator, Dave C. Williams, to 12 years in prison, ultimately was not swayed. Lee said he was amazed to learn that before the robberies began in October, Martinez had phoned an aunt who worked at a bank in New Mexico and asked her about the ease of robbing banks.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030300713.html

[FyurFly]

1. Crime doesn't pay n/t

[Penndems]

2. No, it sure doesn't

Now she'll spend the rest of her youth in the big house.

Twelve years should be more than enough time for her to think about her actions, and the grief and harm she's brought to others.