WOMAN CHARGED IN SPRAGUE, WILLIMANTIC ROBBERIES

State police on Friday filed additional charges against the suspected accomplice in a string of armed robberies at convenience stores in Windham and Sprague.

Kimbalyn Rose Martineau, 31, of Willimantic was charged by warrant with sixth-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery for her alleged role in a Dec. 4, 2018, robbery at the Cumberland Farms on Main Street in Baltic.

The arrest was the result of investigation by the state police Eastern District Major Crime Unit, who worked with Willimantic police on the case.

Martineau’s 29-year-old husband, Scott Rondeau Jr., already is charged with first-degree robbery in the Sprague robbery. In that incident, police said a man wearing a skull mask entered the store, threatened the clerk with a knife and grabbed cash from the register, along with two packs of cigarettes. He made off with $243. Police said Martineau acted as the getaway driver.

Willimantic police recently charged the couple in at least three similar robberies in the Willimantic area dating back to November. The suspect in at least one of those robberies stole a carton of cigarettes in addition to cash. No injuries were reported in the incidents.

Rondeau told police in one interview that he committed the robberies to buy heroin but “also to provide food for my family.” Police reports indicate the couple have three children.

The couple initially was arrested Jan. 2, when Martineau unwittingly made a deal to sell a power saw on Facebook to a Willimantic police officer. Police were waiting for her at the meeting site and later obtained a confession. Martineau was held in lieu of a $100,000 bond in the latest case.