Woman convicted of unarmed robbery of gas station with no jail time

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A woman robs a gas station clerk at gunpoint, but thanks to the surveillance video, she was arrested, convicted and sentenced.

But that sentence has the clerk feeling victimized all over again.

Ali Hammoud is back to work now at the Shell gas station on Middle Belt in Garden City.

But he was pretty shaken up after this woman robbed him at gunpoint and threaten to kill him last November.

"A shotgun to your back you never know what's going to happen," said Hammoud. "You don't know what's going through her mind."

After FOX 2's story aired through a series of tips, police identified the shotgun-wielding woman as Christina Farris. Police tracked her to her home and arrested her.

Farris was charged with armed robbery. Hammoud says he was informed that because of her crimes she could face four to eight years in prison.

But then he received a letter in the mail from the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. It says Farris had pleaded down to unarmed robbery. She was sentenced to two years’ probation, community service and no jail time.

"They found the (stolen) scratch-offs, the (stolen) money, the gun," Hammoud said. "And on top of all that, the security tapes. And they somehow got unarmed out of that, it doesn't make sense."

In response the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office clams it did discuss this case in the plea deal ahead of time.

It also said that the suspect wasn't using a real gun at the time of the robbery. Hammoud says he certainly didn't know that, then and he didn't find out about that - until FOX 2 told him.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "If I think it's a gun, it's a gun. Especially if it's a shotgun too. It can be a bb gun I don't know that."

The Garden City police chief agreed. He said in a phone interview if a gun is represented as a real weapon and places a victim in fear - it qualifies as armed robbery.

Others have been charged the same.

"I think if it was somebody with a different racial background say if it was a black or Hispanic person it would have been really different," Hammoud said.

The prosecutor's office says Farris was sentenced within the guidelines according to the reduced charge, but Hammoud fears it's just a matter of time before she tries it again.