Woman gets 1 year for stealing jewelry from young girls

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SAN JOSE, Calif., April 19 (UPI) -- Authorities in California said a woman who admitted to stealing jewelry from young girls was sentenced to one year in jail.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said Sandra Lizbeth Contreras-Velazquez, 28, of San Jose was originally charged with six counts of grand theft person, but the counts were reduced to three in exchange for Contreras-Velazquez's plea of no contest, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

Contreras-Velazquez was arrested in December after stealing jewelry from young students at Kennedy, Washington, Russo/McEntee, Grant, Trace and Horace Mann elementary schools.

Police said the suspect would approach the girls outside the schools and claim to be a family friend. She would ask to see the girls' jewelry or remove it from the children herself, sometimes replacing real gold jewelry with costume jewelry.

Contreras-Velazquez was given credit for the 127 days she has already served. She will be placed on three years' formal probation when she has completed the rest of her one-year sentence.