Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 28, 2008

HAY RIVER - A Hay River woman has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for trafficking crack cocaine.

Rachel Martel, 43, was sentenced Jan. 25 in Hay River Territorial Court.

Martel had earlier pleaded guilty to the offence, which took place on June 9, 2007.

In an agreed statement of facts, the court was told Martel twice sold cocaine - less than two grams in total - to two undercover RCMP officers.

The officers had asked a different woman where they could get cocaine and she took them to 55 Woodland Drive, where Martel was living.

Martel drove with the officers to a house in Old Town, asking them along the way if they were cops. They said no.

She obtained cocaine at the residence and sold it for $120.

Later that night, she waved down the officers on Woodland Drive and asked for a ride to a bank. They asked if she could sell them more cocaine and they again drove to the residence in Old Town. She sold another small amount of the drug for $120.

The defence noted Martel, a mother of three, has had a substance abuse problem since she was 14, first with alcohol and later with cocaine.

She was selling the cocaine to get money to buy the drug for her personal use.

"I do take into account that Ms. Martel does have a problem," said Judge Bernadette Schmaltz in passing sentence.

However, the judge said, if people choose to be part of the cocaine trade, even as minor players, they have to realize the "severe" consequences.

Following her release, Martel will be on probation for two years.

Martel's residence at the time of the offence - 55 Woodland Drive - is notorious in Hay River because of the Oct. 6, 2007, shooting death of RCMP Const. Christopher Worden.

Emrah Bulatci, the Alberta man charged in Worden's death, was allegedly leaving the house when approached by the officer, who was found shot in a wooded area across the street. Martel no longer lives in the house.

Also on Jan. 25, she pleaded not guilty to a charge of trafficking marijuana on Dec. 11, 2007.

A trial date has not been set in that case.