A woman who admitted guilt to her role in a deadly robbery at La Placita market was sentenced Monday to five years and 10 months in prison.

Estrellita Soto, 36, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on a count of interference with commerce by robbery.

Soto took part in the planning of the robbery at the Hispanic market on Morgantown Road in which Jose Cruz, 31, of Bowling Green, was shot and killed while trying to intervene.

Five people were charged in the incident, part of what prosecutors said was a conspiracy involving 13 co-defendants based in Nashville who robbed a series of mostly Hispanic-owned stores in multiple states.

Soto is the second person to have been sentenced after pleading guilty. The other co-defendant, Lilian Duron, pleaded guilty to the same charge as Soto and was sentenced to four years in prison last month.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky sought an 87-month sentence for Soto. That recommendation was based on federal sentencing guidelines that calculate a range of penalties for a defendant based on the nature of their crimes and their previous criminal history.

Soto’s attorney, Alan Simpson, filed a memorandum ahead of Monday’s sentencing in which he argued for Soto to receive a sentence of time served, based on her lack of criminal history and relatively minor role in the robbery.

Court records indicate Soto and Duron went to La Placita before the robbery to wire money to Mexico, knowing that it would be stolen back by their co-defendants.

By the time of the robbery and the shooting, Soto was traveling back to Nashville and was not aware that Cruz was killed until seeing news accounts, Simpson said in his filing.

As he handed down his sentence, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers noted that Soto made 17 phone calls to Jorge Caballero-Melgar and two calls to Jonny Reyes-Martinez, who are charged with murder and other crimes in the incident, on the day of the robbery.

“What I take from that is that she was reporting her reconnaissance back to her co-defendants,” Stivers said.

While Soto was accused of being involved in only one robbery, it was significant that the incident led to a person’s death, Stivers said.

Soto, who has been held in jail for more than three years while her case was pending, read from written remarks before she was sentenced.

“I participated in an illegal act without stopping for a moment to think about the huge consequences … or the harm I caused,” Soto said through an interpreter. “I address you profoundly remorseful and I ask for your forgiveness with all my heart.”

Soto said she hoped that someday Cruz’s family would forgive her and she also spoke about failing as a mother to her four children.

Stivers drew a contrast between Soto’s statement and the remarks Duron made at her sentencing hearing, saying that Duron expressed heartfelt contrition to Cruz’s family.

“I didn’t hear that as any kind of focus of (Soto’s) statement,” Stivers said.

Cases remain pending against Caballero-Melgar, Reyes-Martinez and Jose Adan Mejia Varela, who are each charged with murder through use of a firearm during a crime of violence, interference with commerce by robbery, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and conspiracy to carry or possess a firearm during a crime of violence.

Reyes-Martinez is accused of firing the fatal shot during the incident.

The three men face a jury trial on April 27.

– Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.