Woman sentenced to 2 years in prison in failed robbery at truck stop

Staff report

WARREN

Lani M. Petrilla, 25, of Holcomb Road in Newton Falls, was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for stealing a pickup truck and using it while trying to rob the Short Stop Truck Plaza in Warren Township last summer.

Petrilla, who told Warren Township police after her arrest that she committed the crimes because of a heroin addiction, pleaded guilty to robbery and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

Judge Peter Kontos could have sentenced the mother of two to more than nine years in prison.

The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office said the theft of the motor vehicle occurred June 23 after a man, 62, of North Bloomfield, told deputies he picked up Petrilla on North Park Avenue and drove her to his home. When he came out of the shower, she and his pickup truck were gone, he said.

On July 1, police said, a woman wearing a camouflage bandanna on her face, hooded sweatshirt and gloves demanded money from an employee at the truck stop, but the employee refused.

The woman pulled out a gun, later determined to be made of cardboard, and threatened the employee again, but the employee still refused, police said. The woman left without getting any money and fled in the pickup truck.

Warren Township police arrested her as she exited the Route 5 Bypass at West Market Street.