PABLO MARTINEZ
WESTFIELD – A shoplifter who pleaded guilty at his arraignment Friday was sent to jail while his apparent accomplice was held in lieu of $50 cash bail.
Officer Michael Bradley reports in a court document that the manager of the Price Rite supermarket on East Main Street called police shortly after noon Thursday to report that two persons who had shoplifted high-value merchandise about two weeks previously were back in the store.
The manager told police that the couple had been recorded on security video about two weeks earlier as they loaded a shopping carriage with meats and shrimp valued at $375 and left the store without making payment.
He said that the same two people were then in the process of loading a carriage with more meat and shrimp.
Bradley reports that, when confronted by a store employee, the couple abandoned the carriage and fled. The carriage was found to contain merchandise valued at $541.12.
The suspects were located in an adjacent parking lot and identified as Rachel A. Johnson and Pablo Martinez. They were found to have no means to pay for the food they had selected as together they had only $47 in their possession.
RACHEL JOHNSON
Johnson, 38, of no fixed address in Springfield, and Martinez, 48, of 52 Sterling St., Springfield, were each arrested and charged with shoplifting by asportation and larceny of property valued less than $1,200.
When they were arraigned in Westfield District Court Friday the shoplifting charges were amended – Johnson’s was modified to be a third or subsequent offense while Martinez was charged as a second offense.
In court, Martinez pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to two concurrent 30 day terms in the house of correction.
Johnson did not plead guilty and was held in lieu of $50 cash bail pending a Nov. 23 hearing.
However, both defendants will probably be back in court soon to face more charges as Bradley reports “This couple was captured on video at least 3 other times between August and September steal (sic) items from Price Rite in similar manner. Now they have been identified, additional charges will be pending for these cases.”
