Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Colorado woman received an 18-month sentence in prison for her role in a high-speed car chase through Tucumcari in May where police officers were shot at after the vehicle she was driving crashed.
District Judge Albert Mitchell Jr. on Wednesday sentenced Brandy Campbell, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, after she accepted a deal to plead guilty to aggravated fleeing of a law officer, a fourth-degree felony.
A charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault upon a peace officer with a deadly weapon was dropped, according to online court documents.
Mitchell also sentenced Campbell to one year of parole and ordered her to complete a domestic-violence program at the New Mexico Department of Corrections.
Her co-defendant, Scott Sherbondy, 37, also of Colorado Springs, was sentenced earlier in the month to more than five years behind bars and faces a life sentence in Colorado once he’s released. He is a registered sex offender.
District Attorney Timothy Rose said Campbell had a long criminal record, including two felony cases, and was not a good candidate for probation.
Her defense attorney, Roger Bargas of Tucumcari, said Campbell has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress syndrome. She was supposed to take mental-health medication, but her probation officer in Colorado “told her that she did not believe that she needed to take those drugs.”
Bargas said Campbell previously had been in an abusive relationship and suffered from Stockholm syndrome before she “hooked up” with Sherbondy. He said Campbell also was in an abusive and “controlling” relationship with Sherbondy where she was not allowed to have a phone.
“They were traveling around the country, and she feels she had no choice but to follow his directions,” Bargas said.
Bargas said Campbell was “under duress” during the police chase on Interstate 40 and Tucumcari streets and that Sherbondy directed her to swerve and speed up to 110 mph.
After the car crashed in north Tucumcari and approaching officers coming to their aid heard a gunshot, Sherbondy told police he wouldn’t come out alive. A Tucumcari officer saw Sherbondy pointing a gun into her back, Bargas said.
Sherbondy eventually put the gun down during the two-hour standoff with police, and Campbell grabbed the firearm and threw it out of the vehicle.
Both then were apprehended without incident.