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A topless maid was convicted this week for killing and nearly decapitating a retired police officer earlier this year.
Robert Crigler, who was a 74-year-old retired Redondo Beach police officer, hired 36-year-old Centia Renee Martin to work as his topless maid and masseuse on January 10, according to a release from the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. Sometime between January 10 and 13, Crigler was brutally murdered. Deputy District Attorney Steven Gates said that Martin repeatedly bashed in Crigler's head with a shotgun, and then managed to almost completely decapitate his head with a knife.
Authorities would find Crigler's body in his Inglewood apartment on January 13
Prosecutors tied Martin to the murder by using forensic evidence and viewing surveillance videos. Investigators also found a broken shotgun. She represented herself in the 21-day trial, and was sentenced to 35 years to life in state prison just right after she was convicted.
Crigler had also served on the S.W.A.T. team, was a Civil Air Patrol pilot, and owned his own real estate company, according to an obituary published in the L.A. Times in February. He is survived by his wife, her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters.