BISBEE - A 62-year-old Douglas grandmother who a prosecutor accused of running drugs to pay for her out-of-control bingo habit was sentenced Friday to three years in prison and fined $150,000.

Leticia Villareal Garcia was arrested in February 2005 when Arizona Department of Public Safety officers, acting on a tip from an informant, stopped her car near Bisbee and found 214 pounds of marijuana hidden in the trunk. Villareal Garcia told the officers that she was driving from her home in Douglas to a casino in Tucson for a regular bingo outing and did not know the drugs were in her car.

She maintained her innocence at Friday's sentencing.

"I never, never had any knowledge of that car being loaded when I went to Tucson," she told Judge Wallace Hoggatt.

At her November trial in Cochise County Superior Court, Villareal Garcia testified her son's long-lost godfather had shown up unannounced at her home the day before her arrest and borrowed her car. Her lawyer, Robert Zohlmann, said she had been used as a "blind mule" to unknowingly haul drugs.

Villareal Garcia told jurors she frequently played bingo and went on outings to Douglas and Tucson, where she occasionally won several thousand dollars. But her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check she received for caring for her granddaughter.

Deputy prosecutor Doyle Johnstun told the jury that Villareal Garcia's fanatical bingo playing had been her undoing.

"People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run," Johnstun said. "The underlying issue is that she's got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this."

The eight-member jury deliberated less than two hours before finding her guilty of transporting marijuana for sale.

Judge Hoggatt could have sentenced Villareal Garcia to as much as 12 1/2 years in prison for the conviction. But Zohlmann argued that given her age and undisclosed medical problems, "anything greater than a super-mitigated sentence (of three years) would effectively be a life sentence for Ms. Garcia."

Johnstun agreed that Villareal Garcia's age and lack of prior felony convictions were mitigating factors in the case. But he said that because her drug running had served as a bad example for her granddaughter, she should receive a four-year sentence.

Villareal Garcia took exception to Johnstun's comment, becoming tearful as she told Hoggatt that the girl had been unaware of the case until she was sent to jail after her November conviction.

Hoggatt decided not to consider the aggravator.

"I would say that setting a bad example is one of the consequences of just about any criminal conviction," the judge said before sentencing Villareal Garcia to three years and a state-mandated $150,000 fine.

Zohlmann, however, wants the conviction and sentence overturned. He filed a motion earlier this month arguing that prosecutors discriminated against Villareal Garcia for being a U.S. citizen and a resident of Cochise County.

The Cochise County attorney, Zohlmann argued, has an unwritten policy of declining federal referrals on under-500-pound marijuana cases - unless the cases involve county residents or local law enforcement agencies.

Zohlmann says the practice constitutes selective prosecution and is therefore unconstitutional.

Johnstun, however, disputes Zohlmann's argument that Villareal Garcia's case qualifies as a federal referral.

While federal agents may have helped secure a tip that Villareal Garcia was running pot, the arrest was executed entirely by state police, Johnstun says.

Hoggatt said he would consider Zohlmann's argument before deciding whether to grant a hearing on the matter.