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Cell Phone Bandit, Boyfriend Held in Robberies, Police Say
She was carrying the cell phone in all of them.
After arresting Williams in the 9400 block of Lee Highway on Monday, authorities broadcast a lookout for the possible getaway car: A gray 1993 Nissan Maxima. At 3:30 a.m. yesterday, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Ron Chavarro spotted the car as he cruised through a Centreville neighborhood as part of the investigation, FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said.
  Candice R. Martinez is in custody. (Fairfax County Police Department - Fairfax County Police Department) |
Chavarro saw two men sitting in the Maxima and ordered them out of the car at gunpoint. Weierman said the men directed the agent to a nearby house in the 14500 block of Picket Oaks Road. Chavarro called Fairfax police for backup. Officers surrounded the house, guns drawn, blue lights flashing, neighbors said. One by one, eight people emerged -- seven men and Martinez, Weierman said. The seven men, and the two in the Maxima, were released.
Martinez was taken to Fairfax police headquarters, where she was interviewed for about six hours. A federal court affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Timothy S. Pak said Martinez admitted committing the four robberies. Williams made identical admissions, Pak wrote. Martinez and Williams were charged with bank robbery in federal court.
A neighbor in Centreville, Jessica Liu, said that two nights earlier, she saw a young woman pacing on the sidewalk in front of the home where the arrest occurred. The woman was talking loudly into a cell phone, perhaps even arguing, Liu said.
"But I don't know whether it was her, the bank robber," she said. "I'm just very surprised this happened. It's hard to believe because it's such a quiet street."
Liu said that although the neighborhood is relatively peaceful, it was not unusual to hear "lots of commotion" coming from the house, which is two doors from hers. She returns home from work about 11 p.m., she said, and often sees groups of youths outside.
Martinez apparently lived in the Springfield area until recently. A woman who answered the door at the home where Martinez lived with her aunt and uncle declined to comment yesterday. But residents of the 9300 block of Walking Horse Court said they were stunned to learn that Martinez was charged as the cell phone bandit.
One neighbor characterized Martinez as "caring," a young woman loved by the many children who play in the cul-de-sac. "Personally, I think the real story isn't that she robbed a couple of banks," the man said. "She was someone with a good job, a car, going to school, a 19-year-old doing very well. The story is, How did this happen?"
Martinez enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College this fall, spokeswoman Susan Davis said. She took four freshman-level classes at the Annandale campus in subjects such as composition and fitness, Davis said, and she also took one class, "Introduction to Radiography," at the college's Springfield medical education campus.
Martinez planned to pursue a business management degree, Davis said, but has been absent from classes for several weeks. "She wasn't here very long," Davis said. "Nobody really knows her."
In addition to being charged in federal court, Martinez is charged with robbery in state court, but it appears that federal prosecutors in Alexandria will handle her case first. Preparations were being made to transfer her to the Alexandria jail last night. Federal and state prosecutors declined to say yesterday who would prosecute the case first.
Staff writers Sonya Geis, Jerry Markon, Leef Smith and Jamie Stockwell and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report. Geis reported from Santa Fe.
