Star Tribune
Sickly thief avoids more prison time after stealing Judy Garland’s slippers
DULUTH — Terry J. Martin, described by his attorney as an “aging thief,” will not serve more time in prison for stealing a pair the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” a judge ruled Monday morning at the federal courthouse here.
Martin, who faced Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz from a wheelchair and while receiving oxygen, struck a plea deal with the federal government for time served. Aside from alcohol-related infractions, Martin has lived a crime-free life in rural Grand Rapids, Minn. for more than a decade.
He is now on home hospice care and hefty mix of prescription drugs that sometimes, by the afternoon hours, make reality hard for him to discern. His doctors don’t expect him to live much longer than a few more months, according to his court-appointed attorney Dane DeKrey.
Martin will be on supervised probation for a year and has been ordered to make restitution payments of $300 per month to the Judy Garland Museum.
After the sentencing, DeKrey pushed his client’s wheelchair to a minivan driven by Martin’s partner Manuela Abraham. Martin settled into the front seat and DeKrey leaned in the passenger side window and reportedly said “I’m glad you get to go home.”
The sentence, which was a departure from guidelines agreed upon by both the defense and prosecution, was not a sure-thing.
“It’s easy to feel like the cake was baked, but it didn’t feel baked this morning,” said DeKrey.
Martin pleaded guilty in October to stealing the slippers. In short, direct sentences spoken in a raspy voice, Martin revealed a few key points to the 18-year-old Minnesota mystery. The theft was a late-night smash-and-grab from the museum that involved little more than taking a sledge hammer to plexiglass.
He believed at the time that he was stealing real ruby slippers — not a mix of glass and sequins. Martin walked away from the shoes within 48 hours of stealing them, after he learned they weren’t covered in real gems.
“It wasn’t an act meant to set off the international intrigue that it did,” DeKrey wrote in his sentencing document. “It was an aging thief committing a crime that he’s lived to deeply regret.”
Martin, whose early life was filled with tragedies including the death of his young mother, a cruel stepmother and the loss of his infant twins in a fatal car crash with a train, spent years in prison. Among his areas of knowledge: stealing. Long after he had settled into a crime-free life in Grand Rapids, he got a call from an old friend from his crime circles about the ruby slippers.
Martin was lured by the rush of “one last score,” according to DeKrey.
At the time of the theft, the slippers were on loan to the museum in the town where Garland was born. They were one of several pairs she wore in the 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz.” It was the fourth time the shoes had been displayed at the museum and were a popular draw. An exhibition held during the film’s 50th anniversary had pulled 30,000 visitors to the small town museum, according to its former director John Kelsch.
The slippers were recovered by the FBI during a sting operation in 2018. At the time, officials shared few details. There had been a recent scheme to defraud and extort the insurance company that owns the slippers and agents had carried out search warrants in Minnesota and Florida in the recovery process.
No one beyond Martin has ever been charged in the case.
Investigators tied Martin to slippers because he was in extensive phone contact with another suspect, special assistant U.S. attorney Matthew Greenley said in court. The former thief’s past and his proximity to the crime scene added to his level of intrigue. In the process of investigating Martin, agents noted that his partner Abraham was in the United States illegally. They were able to execute a search warrant at his residence.
Martin revealed to authorities that he stole the slippers, but offered no details incriminating anyone else — adhering, according to his attorney, to a personal code. Abraham was not prosecuted and is en route to legal status as part of the plea deal.
On Monday, Kelsch still seemed surprised that the man who stole the slippers lived just 5 miles from his own house. He rued the lost years of displaying the slippers, but was glad for a bit of closure offered by Martin’s admission. For a while, Kelsch was a suspect.
“He could’ve carried this to his grave,” Kelsch said.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
