By Wheeler Cowperthwaite
Special to the SUN

An Española woman will spend five years on supervised probation for beating a man with a metal pipe, taking his wallet and using it to buy things at Walmart.

Camyelle Holmes, 47, pleaded guilty, March 27, to charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fraud over $500, larceny over $500 and conspiracy to commit fraud over $500.

The plea deal sets her sentence at five years of supervised probation and a suspended sentence of seven-and-a-half years.

The victim told police that Holmes and the other person charged, Zara DePaula, 35, attacked him along with two people he didn’t know after he refused to do a “drug run” for Holmes. After they beat him, DePaula took his phone and wallet and when he later checked his bank account, he saw charges for $571 at Walmart, Española Police Officer Anthony Martinez wrote following the June 22, 2023 beating.

Martinez went to Walmart, checked the surveillance cameras and watched footage of DePaula and Holmes allegedly using his stolen card, Martinez wrote.

Martinez was originally sent to the Lucero Center for reports of a man being beaten by others with a bat, but the man in the Walmart case initially denied that he was the man beaten. However, he went in to report the theft and beating at the police station the following day, Martinez wrote.

Holmes was wanted on a bench warrant sometime between Sept. 29 and her arrest on March 4 for failing to appear for a Sept. 26 plea hearing.

DePaula pleaded guilty to charges of fraud over $500 and larceny over $500 on Nov. 17. Her plea deal set her sentence at 18 months of supervised probation and dismissed charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit fraud over $2,500.

When DePaula was first arrested in 2023, prosecutors sought to have her held without bail as a danger to the community. She was released, but then arrested four separate times in the case, every time on a bench warrant, after she kept on failing to appear for court hearings.

The two men also involved in the beating were never identified or charged.