Popcorn Worker Sentenced For Taking Hostage
EL SEGUNDO (AP) — An employee of a gourmet popcorn company who took an executive hostage at gunpoint has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Los Angeles County prosecutors say 23-year-old Leonora Banuelos was sentenced Monday for the April 2013 attack at a distribution center for Popcornopolis in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo.
Prosecutors say Banuelos was distraught over a failed relationship with a co-worker and was looking for that employee when she entered the building. She couldn't find him and instead took the company's chief financial officer hostage.
She surrendered after a three-hour standoff without harming the executive.
Banuelos was sentenced immediately after pleading no contest to attempted murder and assault with a firearm.
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