Ex-police aide gets 5 years for robbery

Posted at: 10/30/2009 1:28 PM
By: The Associated Press

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - A former Farmington police community service officer, who pleaded guilty to robbing a pharmacy at gunpoint to steal narcotics before leading authorities on a high-speed car chase, has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Kathryn Martinez, 38, pleaded guilty to second-degree armed robbery, aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer and false imprisonment.

State District Court Judge John Dean sentenced Martinez to 12 years in prison but suspended seven years. She had faced more than 28 years in prison.

Martinez took methadone and oxycontin pills, valued at about $11,000, and brandished a gun during the November 2008 robbery. A high-speed chase ensued, ending with police gunfire after Martinez drove her vehicle toward an officer who was standing in a roadway.

No one was injured.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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