AUGUSTA — A New York woman pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of hindering apprehension in connection with the shooting death of a New York man two and a half years ago in a Winthrop mobile home.

Skylee Negron, who appeared Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center, was sentenced to 18 months, with all but 134 days suspended, with two years of probation as part of plea deal.

Negron had initially been charged with felony murder in the October 2020 shooting death of Joshua Martin, a New York resident who was known to be staying in the Augusta area in 2020, after a similar charge had been dismissed against another woman as part of a plea deal.

In Maine, a felony murder charge can be brought when a victim dies during the commission of certain other crimes, including robbery, and the crime the suspect was involved with is considered the cause of death.

Under Negron’s deal, the felony murder charge as well as a theft charge were dismissed.

No one is currently under criminal indictment in connection with Martin’s death, according to the list of current homicide cases compiled by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Superior Court Justice Julia Lipez said the recommended sentence for Negron, while less severe than the court would likely have imposed after trial and sentencing, was appropriate because Negron had accepted responsibility for her crime and the facts presented by prosecutors.

Before Negron was sentenced, prosecutor Lisa Bogue summed up the evidence that would have been presented if Negron had gone to trial. That evidence included testimony from the three men who lived in the Squire Court mobile home about a confrontation between Martin and Kiera Francis, Negron and a man the Kennebec Journal is not identifying because he has not been charged in this case, over some items believed to be in Martin’s possession.

Bogue, an assistant attorney general, said Martin was believed to have made an aggressive move, after which Martin was shot.

Bogue said evidence also included a distinctive gun recovered not far from the scene of the shooting and evidence that the bullets recovered from the victim had been shot from that gun. There was also location information on several cellphones, including Martin’s, that showed they were taken to Fairfield, where Negron was known to be staying with the man at the American Lodge hotel, Bogue said.

“Through the course of the investigation,” Bogue said, “it was believed that the theory of the case was that Mr. Martin had been robbed and that these three parties had been involved and that Mr. Martin was killed as the result of that.”

Bogue said that both Negron and Francis had provided details to investigators that showed that’s not quite what happened. “That’s the basis for the state’s resolution on both of those matters,” she said.

Francis had been indicted in March 2021 by a grand jury in Kennebec County on felony murder, robbery and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. As part her plea deal, Francis pleaded guilty to the reckless conduct charge and the other two charges were dropped. She was sentenced for five years in prison with all but 672 days suspended and two years of probation.

As part of the sentence imposed Thursday, Negron is to have no contact with either Francis or the man she was with.

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