Knife-point robber earns stint in state pen

MEDIA COURTHOUSE » An Upper Darby woman was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in a state correctional facility Tuesday with seven years of consecutive probation for two knife-point robberies in Haverford last year.

Jessica Ettore, 37, of the 700 block of Alexander Avenue, entered open guilty pleas in June to two counts of robbery and two counts of conspiracy with co-defendant Matthew Jason Jimenez, 32, of the 100 block of Busti Avenue in Philadelphia.

Both robberies took place on the street in November and involved teenage males, according to Assistant District Attorney Michelle Thurstlic-O’Neill. Ettore was the driver in both instances while Jimenez committed the knife-point robberies, she said.

A third robbery took place in the Ardmore section of Lower Merion Township. Credit cards taken from the victim in that case were later used at a Philadelphia gas station, where video surveillance led police to Ettore. She was arrested Nov. 28 and identified Jimenez as an accomplice.

Jimenez pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy charges last month in Delaware County and was sentenced to two and a half to five years in state prison. He is still scheduled for trial in the Montgomery County case in October.

Ettore already pleaded to a conspiracy charge in Montgomery County in June, for which she was given 21 days to 23 months incarceration and five years of probation, according to online court records.

Defense attorney Jessica Mann asked Judge James Bradley Tuesday for a sentence of time served with outpatient drug treatment, similar to what Ettore received in Montgomery County. Mann noted Ettore had been a drug addict but was 12 years clean before relapsing in 2017 due to the death of her mother and other health issues with her father.

Mann added that Ettore had no prior run-ins with the law and had cooperated fully with investigators, pleading guilty at her earliest opportunity and promising to testify against Jimenez at trial.

“I take full responsibility in my actions,” Ettore said Tuesday. “I am very sorry for the families that I hurt. I never wished to hurt anyone. I was in a very bad place at that time. I was in an abusive relationship. I was sober for so many years and everything happened all at once.”

Thurstlic-O’Neill said she could not agree to a time-served sentence due to the impact the robberies had on the teenage victims, one of which suffered setbacks with his development disabilities and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She asked for a standard-range sentence.

Bradley said the court was not unsympathetic to Ettore’s situation, but if not for the excellent police work of investigators, the pair could still be on the loose. In addition to prison time and probation, Ettore was ordered to pay $849 in restitution to the victims, joint and several with Jimenez.

“I think the only positive in all this is that the victims in question were wise enough not to resist,” the judge said. “Had they done so, there’s no doubt in my mind that we could be talking about much more serious problems and the defendant could have well wound up as an accessory to murder.”