Judge Sharply Cuts Term for Three-Strikes Defendant

A Torrance judge Monday reduced to eight years the sentence of 25-years-to-life for a three-strikes defendant convicted last year of shoplifting a $60 bottle of cologne from a department store.

Noting that the crime would usually be a petty theft and that defendant Curtis Martin’s prior convictions for armed robbery were more than a decade old, Superior Court Judge William R. Holingsworth granted a defense attorney’s motion to consider Martin’s theft conviction as his second, not third, strike. The judge’s decision means that Martin, 34, who has been imprisoned for more than a year, will serve about another six years.

The district attorney’s office, after reviewing the case, decided that it would not appeal Holingsworth’s decision, which was prompted by an appeal from Martin’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Joel Jones.

“I’m elated,” Martin’s wife, Latonya, said outside the courtroom, joined by her four sons. “It seemed like when they sentenced him [before] to 25 years, they took away all of our lives. But now . . . [the judge] seems like he gave us our future back.”

Martin’s oldest son, Christopher, 15, said: “[The sentence] still seems like a lot for what he did . . . but I’m just happy I can have a father now. I can get a whole new start.”