Local News in Brief : Man Who Held Car for Ransom Gets 4 Years

A North Hollywood man who claimed that he “partied all night” in an effort to recover a stolen Hertz rental car was given a maximum sentence Tuesday of four years and eight months in state prison for attempted extortion and receiving stolen property.

Thomas Martin, 33, was found guilty by a jury May 28 of attempting to extort $200 from the Hertz Corp. last fall by threatening to “chop up” a rented 1985 Lincoln Towncar that had been stolen from a customer.

Martin told jurors he rented a motel room, purchased liquor and marijuana and “got some girls” to detain the man he said had stolen the car. Martin said in court that, after a Sept. 23 conversation with a Hertz representative, he believed that he had been employed to act as a “spy.”

A Hertz representative testified during the trial that Martin had threatened to disassemble the car unless he was paid $200 or given a one-way airplane ticket to Boston. Martin testified in the trial before Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew that the firm had offered him a reward for locating the car.