The State

Life on a New Track Could Be Derailed by Sentencing Dispute

Legal battle centers on whether woman should serve 65 days

Pamela Martinez served seven years in prison for pinching a $30 toolbox, yet authorities say she still hasn't paid her debt to society.

More than two years after she was released from prison, Martinez said, she has put her life in order. She quit drugs, got a job at Home Depot, rented a cramped apartment outside San Diego and bought a car. "I'm trying to be a poster child for rehabilitation," she said.

In a dispute that stems from the state's complicated sentencing formulas, the Department of Corrections and the California attorney general say Martinez owes the state 65 more days in prison.

She had been ordered to report to thein the fast lane in Colorado," Martinez said. "I was hanging around with high rollers and taking planes all over the world. The next thing I knew, I was dabbling with drugs. I didn't know anything was wrong."

Chaos followed. Martinez said she became addicted to heroin and abused other drugs, and found herself in repeated brushes with the law. In 1978 she was convicted of robbery when, she said, she lent her car to friends, who held up a liquor store. In 1987, she was convicted of second-degree robbery for shoplifting at Sears and leading a security guard on a chase. In between there were bounced checks and petty thefts.

Martinez said her life fell apart in 1995, when her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness and she