Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge John F. Lakin sentenced a former maintenance man to 24 months of probation and 100 hours of community service for breaking into a Longboat Key condominium, stealing a woman’s diamond and pawning it to a Bradenton Beach jeweler.
Michael M. Artman, 52, entered an open plea agreement in November on the second-degree charges of grand theft, burglary and dealing in stolen property, each charge carrying maximum 15-year prison terms.
Assistant State Attorney Courtney Holland recommended four years in prison based on Artman’s sentencing score, and Artman’s court-appointed attorney requested probation.
In addition to the Dec. 16 probation sentence, Lakin assessed Artman $100 for the Longboat Key police investigation and reserved the issue of Artman’s restitution, Holland said.
The judge, departing from the minimum sentencing guidelines, found Artman committed the offense in an unsophisticated manner and that it was an isolated incident for which he’d shown remorse, according to Holland.
“If you have all three, then the judge can depart from the minimum sentencing,” she said, adding that she didn’t believe the defendant was remorseful in his testimony.
“The judge and I disagreed,” Holland said.
“I think that’s awful,” said Bridge Street Jewelers co-owner Kassy Quinn after hearing of Artman’s sentence.
“It was an ongoing thing for four years. We were victims and there were so many victims,” she added.
Artman frequented the Bridge Street Jewelers, 129 Bridge St., Bradenton Beach, for four years, telling the shopkeeper he was selling jewelry from his mother’s estate, according to Quinn and her husband, store co-owner Brad Smith.
The diamond ring, valued and insured at $85,000, was reported missing in February from a woman’s Windward Bay condominium, according to an LKPD report.
Artman, a former maintenance man for Windward Bay, allegedly gained entry to the condominium with a key he’d kept from an old job.
The diamond was sold Feb. 2 by Artman to Bridge Street Jewelers.
Artman presented the stone for sale, separated from the ring’s setting, according to Smith.
It was ultimately found by the insurance company after changing hands several times in New York, he said.
While the victim got her diamond back, Bridge Street Jewelers lost the $6,000 that it paid to Artman, according to Smith and Quinn.
Quinn explained they returned the money paid to them by the New York diamond dealer they first sold it to, saying that’s the way it works in the diamond business — “it’s built on trust.”
According to the LKPD’s investigation, Artman admitted to 10-15 similar crimes.
LKPD Detective Sgt. Robert Bourke said he is surprised that Artman is not locked away, has open cases in which Artman is a suspect and is working with the state’s attorney’s office to bring other charges.
