YOUNGSTOWN — Angel L. Rosario Martinez, 46, who was sentenced to four to six years in prison Wednesday for robbing an elderly woman outside a West Side business Sept. 20 and stealing a car the same day, said he committed the crimes to buy drugs and “because I was looking to be arrested.”

“I committed a crime, I committed another crime and another crime because I was looking to be arrested, until I was able to accomplish being arrested,” Martinez said through an interpreter.

His attorney, Mark Lavelle, said the first time he met Martinez, he “looked like a junkie. He looked like somebody living on the streets. He looked like hell.” Lavelle said Martinez had taken up using crack cocaine “recreationally” prior to the offenses.

Lavelle said he asked Martinez why he didn’t just get clean from drugs instead of getting arrested, and Martinez said he didn’t know.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin sentenced Martinez to the prosecution-recommended four to six years for high-level felony robbery, plus low-level theft from a person in a protected class and grand theft of a motor vehicle. Lavelle asked the judge to sentence Martinez to two years.

During the hearing, a relative of the woman gave a victim impact statement on the victim’s behalf, saying the victim had intended Sept. 20 to go to the hair salon and then stop at the grocery store on the way home.

“What she got was attacked, assaulted and robbed,” the man said. “Her life hasn’t been the same since.” He said she came to court the previous day on Martinez’s first sentencing date, but “emotionally just couldn’t attend today.”

“She was threatened, grabbed and left with bruises on her neck and arms before the defendant left on foot,” the family member said. She had to have her driver’s license and debit card, checking account and credit card canceled and reissued. Her social security and pension payments were delayed and had to be redirected to new accounts, he said.

“This proved to be a very stressful time for her,” he said. “She’s no longer confident driving by herself. He has made her scared. She is uncomfortable at times home alone, and we are very lucky she has a sister who spends a lot of time with her.”

Gonzalez started that day by breaking into cars in the Mahoning Plaza, then went down Meridian Road and hid on the side of a building “to attack and rob our senior loved one,” the family member said. “He didn’t leave her until patrons from inside the salon came outside in response to the car horn blowing.”

He said Martinez “proceeded to the Cornersburg area and stole a vehicle from another protected-class individual.” He abandoned the vehicle in a parking lot, then went to a parking lot on Canfield Road.

“It was there that I watched him attempt to forcefully steal a car from an individual leaving the building,” he said. Martinez ran toward St. Christine School, “forcing the school to be placed in an emergency lockdown. Moments later, he was apprehended in the school parking lot,” he said.

A Youngstown police report states that officers became aware of Martinez when a citizen reported a man getting into a victim’s car and driving away at 11:16 a.m. in the 3300 block of Fremont Avenue on the West Side.

When an officer arrived, the victim and his grandson said they watched a man ride up onto the driveway on a bicycle and pull on all of the doors of a car in the driveway.

One of the victims yelled at the suspect to get away from the car, but the man got in and drove away south on Meridian Road, the report states.

The suspect had long, curly hair and “appeared to be high on something,” one of them said. The owner of the car had left it running in the driveway, the report states. The suspect left his bicycle behind.

While the officer was completing his investigation, he learned that two other officers were in the area of Canfield Road and Sunnybrook Drive not far away, investigating the theft of a purse and cell phone from a woman.

One of the officers was speaking to a male, who said he was “pinging” the stolen cell phone, and it was in the Canfield Road and Sunnybrook area. Officers observed a man with dark, curly hair walking at Canfield Road at South Schenley Avenue, the report states.

The two officers tried to make contact with the man, but he ran into the woods behind a nursing home on Canfield Road. The third officer saw the man running into the parking lot of St. Christine School on South Schenley Avenue.

An officer saw the man in the parking lot close to the school’s front door pulling items out of his pockets and throwing them onto the ground, the report states. The final officer was able to make the arrest.

Officers saw a cell phone with flowers on it that the man, later identified as Martinez, had pulled out of his pocket, the report states. The phone belonged to the victim of the purse and phone theft, the report states.

The report notes that another Youngstown officer had been in the area of Canfield Road and South Meridian when he saw a silver 2005 Avalanche in the rear parking lot of Walgreens with the keys in the tailgate of the vehicle. It was the vehicle that had been stolen.

It was processed by the Youngstown police crime lab and was towed by police. The owner of the Avalanche identified Martinez from a photo lineup as the person who stole it, the report states.