Arizona couple plead guilty in multi-county video gambling network

Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 12:24 p.m.

Under a plea agreement, federal prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of one year and a day for Arthur Harold Martin, 53, and probation for his wife, Imogene Dutton Martin, 48. The couple also will pay $500,000.

A sentencing date was not immediately set. The Martins entered the pleas Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, agreeing to a number of penalties, including forfeiture of $500,000 to the government from the sale of a bowling alley in Haleyville.

The Martins admitted running video gambling operations in Walker, Cullman, Lamar, Marion, Morgan and Winston counties, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Meadows.

Imogene Martin pleaded guilty to one count of having involvement in the video gambling machine business. She had faced up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if the case had gone to trial. Her husband could have gotten 13 years in prison and fines of over $750,000, if convicted at trial.

Prosecutors claimed the Martins owned and operated video gambling machines for at least four years between 1994 and April 1998, when law enforcement agencies and the Internal Revenue Service shut the network down.

The Martins also agreed to turn over to the government the seized machines - about 150 - and their contents. Former FBI Agent Jim Kiel, who coordinated the raids, said the machines, which were worth about $3,500 each, would be destroyed.

Two other defendants in the case, Ricky Marshall Aderholt, 45, and Pamela A. Baker, 41, both of Double Springs, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges related to their involvement in the activities.

Aderholt was sentenced to six months in prison and Baker received three years probation.

Earlier, Martin's son, Jonathan Harold Martin, who allegedly helped operate the video machine business, was placed in a first-offender program and will not be criminally prosecuted if he successfully completes the one-year program, the prosecutor said.