PORT ANGELES — A 33-year-old Forks woman has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree robbery and attempted second-degree burglary of two West End businesses.
Jennifer Sue Holmes was sentenced to three years, 10 months at an Aug. 30 hearing in Clallam County Superior Court, the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has announced.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Christopher Melly ordered Holmes to undergo drug treatment as part of her sentence.
Forks police said Holmes entered the La Michoacana Mexican store in Forks with what appeared to be a pistol and demanded money out of the cash register Aug. 2.
She threatened to shoot the store clerk and left with about $300 in cash, according to the affidavit for probable cause.
After her arrest, Holmes told investigators that the gun was fake. She helped officers recover what they confirmed to be a pellet gun.
Officer Michel Gentry, a state-certified firearms instructor and handgun armorer, said the weapon appeared to be a fully-functional semi-automatic handgun capable of causing serious injury or death.
“It was not until close examination that I identified it as a pellet or BB gun,” Gentry wrote in his report.
Police said Holmes also tried to take money from the 76 gas station in Forks on July 31 by threatening to infect an employee with AIDS. Holmes told the man that she would stab him with a dirty hypodermic needle, court papers said.
Holmes said she did not take anything from the gas station because the attendant told her to “get out and get” after she threatened him, according to the arrest narrative.
Prosecutors charged Holmes with first-degree robbery and attempted first-degree robbery Aug. 4. She pleaded down to the lesser attempted burglary charge.
Holmes is serving her sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
