SPITTING AT A PRISON GUARD IS NOT ONLY VEERBOTEN, IT’S A FELONY

Woman tells judge, “If I knew it was a felony, I wouldn’t have done it”

Jeff ‘Paco’ Doyle says: Kudos to the State of Idaho for meting out an appropriate term for a vile, violent crime. And, in the interest of balance, let's hear it for Angie Marie Trujillo for presenting one unique defense. “If I knew it was a felony, I wouldn't have done it.” Likely for the first time, she was telling the unqualified truth before a judge. That's called growth.

WOMAN ADMITS TO SPITTING AT PRISON GUARD

Idaho State Journal
November 13, 2013

POCATELLO — Angie Marie Trujillo told Sixth District Judge Stephen Dunn Tuesday morning that had she known she would be facing a new felony charge, she never would have spit in the face of a guard at the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center.

Trujillo pleaded guilty Tuesday to doing just that and faces additional time in prison, time the judge told her would have to be served before she could continue serving her current sentence.

Trujillo is current serving the indeterminate time of a sentence out of Bonneville County on a conviction of sexual abuse of a minor 16 or 17 years old. She was sentenced in January 2009 to two years fixed and 13 years indeterminate. She has served the fixed time and is now into the indeterminate portion of her sentence.

Dunn told the defendant that statutes required that any sentence he handed down must be served consecutive to her current sentence and would interrupt her serving that indeterminate time. Once she serves the sentence for her newest crime, she would then return to serving the indeterminate portion of her sentence from Bonneville County.

She faces up to five years for felony propelling bodily fluid or waste at law enforcement.

The incident occurred in April, during a time in which Trujillo told Dunn she was being sanctioned, allowed just an hour a day out of her cell at PWCC. She told the judge she became frustrated and would not listen to the guard. When that guard approached her, Trujillo said she spit on her.

When asked, Trujillo said she had no idea it was a crime. She did expect prison sanctions but not a new felony crime.

“If I knew it was a felony, I wouldn’t have done it,” she said.

Her sentencing is set for Jan. 6.