Woman sentenced for helping with robbery
EPHRATA - A Moses Lake woman will serve a year in prison for helping to rob a man she was staying with.
Desert S. M. Donini, 27, pleaded guilty to robbery in the second degree in Grant County Superior Court.
Prosecutors originally charged Donini with robbery in the first degree, kidnapping the first degree, burglary in the first degree, assault in the second degree, possession of meth, harassment and theft in the second degree.
Most of the charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement, according to court records.
Donini has prior convictions for theft in the second degree and forgery. When combined with her present conviction, she faced a sentencing range of a year to a year and two months in prison, according to court records.
Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz followed the prosecutor and defense recommendation for the low end of the sentencing range. He sentenced her to a year in prison.
Donini helped Darrell F. Smith rob a man staying in a Moses Lake motel room. Donini was staying with the man, when Smith broke into the victim's room wearing a ski mask. Smith yelled at the victim to get off the phone, saying he would kill the victim if he called for help, according to a Moses Lake police report. He bound the victims wrists with Zip Ties, before telling Donini to get into the bathroom, where he bound and gagged her.
Smith returned to the room, showing him a knife. He began yelling he wanted money because the man was "sleeping with his wife," according to the police report. After finding a receipt for a money order, Smith took the victim's debit card, asking him how much money was available. When the victim said he could only take out $300 a time from the ATM, but had a couple thousand for purchases, Smith took the victim and the woman to Walmart.
He told Donini to buy an iPod and a phone card with the debit card. After she returned with the items, they drove to the Ephrata Walmart, where Smith entered the store with tools, leaving them in the vehicle for a couple hours, according to the police report. The victim said he was afraid to leave because Smith knew where he lived and said he would hunt him down and kill him.
Smith came back to the vehicle, telling the others to meet him inside, where Smith put a laptop inside of doghouse box, and told them to get back to the car and be prepared to flee, according to the police report.
The three people went back to the victim's hotel until 6 a.m. when the victim started to leave for work. When Smith asked where he was going, the man said if he didn't leave for work people would be looking for him, according to the police report.
Police discovered Smith was staying at the motel with his girlfriend, and found the Walmart receipt for the iPod and phone card in his pants pocket, according to the police report. Smith told police he was trying to raise money to get his girlfriend's car out of impound.
Donini admitted to police she knew Smith and was drinking in a room with a friend when he came in and asked if the victim had any money, according to the police report. He offered to get her enough drugs to get high. She said she didn't know what he was going to do until he did it.
Smith was convicted of robbery in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment, assault in the second degree, possession of meth, harassment, theft in the second degree, trespassing in the first degree, theft of a motor vehicle and escape in the second degree in two cases, according to court records. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison.