Rico
COSTA RICA EXTRA – Martha Heredia, the Dominican singer and the winner of the fourth and last season of the television program Latin American Idol, has been sentenced to seven years prison and a fine of US$2.300 for heroin trafficking.
On 22 February 2013, Heredia was arrested while attempting to board a plane bound from the Dominican Republic to New York. About 1.2 kilos of heroin were found in the heels of her shoes.
On Tuesday (Agust 12, 2014), Heredia pleaded guilty and sentenced by the Segundo Tribunal Colegiado del Departamento Judicial de Santiago (norte) , presided by Herminia Rodríguez, Osvaldo Castillo and Altagracia Ramírez. The prosecutor has asked for 20 years prison, the maximum penalty for drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic.
In December 2010, while driving from her home city Santiago, to the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, and more specifically driving through Villa Altagracia town, Martha crashed her vehicle, causing the death of a 16-year-old Haitian student who was walking home. Martha herself suffered minor lesions.
At 18, Heredia traveled San José, Costa Rica to audition for the fourth season of Latin American Idol. She did well on her audition and later traveled to Argentina, where she was amongst the top performers of a Latin American Idol workshop. Her next test was to earn the most votes out of the 12 performers on the show.
For two months, Heredia was very successful all the way up to the final between Heredia and Costa Rica’s Eduardo Aguirre, where she performed with Franco de Vita. On December 10, 2009, after receiving more than 50% of the total number of votes, Martha Heredia became the new Latin American Idol.
In January 2010, Heredia released her first single Música, and was supposed to record her first production with Sony BMG, however, as of 2013 it was not produced and/or released, prior to her arrest for drug trafficking.
