Woman pleads guilty to purse snatchings

A couple of the victims were bruised during the thefts.

WARREN — A 20-year-old woman pleaded guilty to participating in five purse snatchings from older women in parking lots May 28-31.

Destiny E. Coots, 20, of 645 Center South Road in Leavittsburg, pleaded Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to four counts of theft from an elderly person and one count of robbery. She will be sentenced after the county Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation. She could get up to nine years in prison.

Coots and two male accomplices took purses from women between the ages of 65 and 84 in the parking lot of the Elm Road Uni Mart gas station, Aldi’s grocery store and Super Kmart on state Route 46 in Howland and the Mahoning Avenue Giant Eagle in Warren.

One of Coots’ accomplices, Dustin DeSmith, 22, of 686 Riverview Drive, Leavittsburg, was sentenced to six months in prison July 24 for his part. DeSmith was also sentenced to a year in prison in January 2006 for stealing the purse of a 69-year-old West Avenue Northwest woman at her doorstep in July 2005.

The investigation into the second male accomplice is ongoing.

Assistant Prosecutor David Toepfer said Coots personally stole purses from women at the Uni Mart and Aldi’s, committed a robbery on a woman at the Giant Eagle and was the driver for a second purse snatching at the Aldi’s and for one at the Super Kmart.

The theft at the Giant Eagle was a more serious crime because Coots had a struggle with the woman while taking her purse, Toepfer said. A couple of the victims received bruises during the thefts.

runyan@vindy.com