Woman May Face Life Term Under `3-Strikes' Law
Mary Ann London, convicted yesterday of robbing a disabled Normandy Park man, is believed to be the first woman to qualify for life imprisonment under the state's "three-strikes" law, prosecutors say.
After deliberating about eight hours over three days, a King County Superior Court jury found London, a 36-year-old transient, guilty of second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary for breaking into the man's apartment and taking two radios.
London claimed she was working as a prostitute and that after she performed sex for Jeff Mattson, 29, she learned he couldn't pay her. She said she took the radios as collateral until she was paid.
Her attorneys claimed Mattson, who has cerebral palsy, made up the robbery story so he wouldn't get in trouble with his grandmother for losing the equipment to a prostitute.
London had been visiting one of Mattson's neighbors at the Normandy Park apartment complex before the encounter June 8.
Mattson said London got into his apartment by reaching through an open window and unlocking his door.
He testified that London, who is larger than Mattson, sat on him and choked him until he agreed to hand over $7 in cash. He also said London took his boom box and a short-wave radio.
He told his neighbor he was loaning the equipment to her, but said in court that was what she had instructed him to say. Mattson told jurors London threatened him.
"She said, `If you ever tell the police, I'll come back and kill you,' " he said.
Because Mattson's phone had been ripped from the wall he rode his bicycle to his grandmother's house. His grandmother testified he wasn't wearing shoes or socks and was so anxious that for the first 10 minutes he simply repeated, "She choked me."
Deputy Prosecutor Jan Capps said a new jury will convene to determine whether London meets the statutory definition of a "persistent offender." Essentially, the jury will simply review London's identity and criminal history.
Prosecutors say she has already been convicted of second-degree robbery three times. She also was recently convicted of misdemeanor assault.
The law calls for a mandatory life sentence for anyone convicted three separate times of a qualifying felony. Second-degree robbery is the crime that most often leads to three-strike sentences.
The jury that convicted London, as is usual, did not know of her potential punishment of life in prison with no chance for release.