Airport ‘serial stowaway’ pleads guilty, gets 3-plus years

This January 2018 file photo provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Marilyn Hartman. (Chicago Police Department via AP, File)
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CHICAGO (AP) — A 70-year-old woman with a history of slipping past security at airports and sneaking onto flights was sentenced on Thursday to more than three years in prison for trespassing at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2019.

After Marilyn Hartman pleaded guilty to felony counts of criminal trespass and escape from electronic monitoring, Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas sentenced her to 18 months for the trespassing charge and two years for the escape charge.

She must serve the sentences consecutively, the judge said.

However, she was given well over two years of credit for the time she has already been in custody, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop other similar charges against her.

The hearing marks the latest chapter in a yearslong odyssey of a woman dubbed the “serial stowaway” who has sneaked into airports in Chicago, Hawaii, San Francisco, Florida and elsewhere and tried — sometimes successfully — to board passenger jets without a ticket.