UPDATE
Jan 29, 2024 2:26 PM CST
A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz because he wanted to pull off "one last score" was given no prison time at his sentencing hearing Monday. Chief US District Judge Patrick Schiltz accepted the recommendation of both sides that he sentence 76-year-old Terry Martin to time served because he is housebound in hospice care with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and is expected to die within the next few months, the AP reports. Schiltz told Martin he probably would have sentenced him to 10 years in prison if it was still 2005, the year of the theft. "I certainly do not want to minimize the seriousness of Mr. Martin's crime," the judge said. "Mr. Martin intended to steal and destroy an irreplaceable part of American culture."
Jan 23, 2024 5:38 PM CST
The man who stole ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz is a reformed criminal who was persuaded by a former mob associate to make "one last score," according to a lawyer trying to keep Terry Martin out of prison for what little remains of his life. Martin, 76, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and is in hospice care with a life expectancy of less than six months, the AP reports. In a memo filed ahead of his sentencing next week, defense attorney Dane DeKrey said Martin had never seen the movie, didn't realize the cultural significance of the slippers, and thought they were covered in real rubies when he stole them from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005.
Martin got rid of the shoes within two days of stealing them, DeKrey said, though the FBI didn't recover them until 2018, when some of his former associates tried to claim reward money. In the memo, DeKrey said Martin, who had a long history of crimes including burglary and receiving stolen property, had stayed out of prison without getting in trouble for almost a decade before the theft, the BBC reports. "At first, Terry declined the invitation to participate in the heist. But old habits die hard, and the thought of a 'final score' kept him up at night," he wrote. "After much contemplation, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to participate in the theft."
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DeKrey said Martin, who was indicted on a federal theft charge last year, didn't commit any other crimes after stealing the slippers. The slippers, one of four surviving pairs Garland wore in the movie, were insured for $1 million, but prosecutors say their value today is around $3.5 million. DeKrey urged the judge to consider tragic events in Martin's past when considering leniency—including the death of his 1-month-old twins, who died when his girlfriend's car was hit by a train straight after she took the infants to meet him in prison. "This was truly the turning point in Terry's life—his villain origin story—and the reason he not only went down his dark path but accelerated towards it," the lawyer wrote. (More ruby slippers stories.)
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