A 19-year-old woman remained in federal custody Friday in Portland after police say she accompanied two men on a crime spree that started with the killing of an Uber driver in Colorado, included armed robberies in two other states and ended with arrests in Oregon.

Oregon State Police Capt. Timothy Fox compared the rash of violence to the deadly exploits of Bonnie and Clyde.

A federal prosecutor described Cynthia Sena as a significant danger to the community after the Feb. 22 killing of the Uber driver in Colorado once Sena had summoned the ride, an armed robbery at a gas station in Wyoming and an armed robbery of a bank in Utah before ending the next day with her arrest in Oregon.

Sena’s defense lawyer gave a strikingly different account of Sena’s role. He argued she was terrorized into going with the men and is a victim in the case.

Sena appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland wearing a full-length green anti-suicide smock.

Two alleged accomplices, Matthew Anthony Fanelli, 30, of New Mexico, and Jose Lopez-Jovel, 31, of El Salvador, face murder charges out of Colorado. In Oregon, the men are accused of attempting a carjacking in Roseburg and Fanelli is accused of leading police on a high-speed chase south on Interstate 5 and firing at a pursuing state trooper.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DuCloux said he was “disgusted’’ that his client was being treated as a criminal defendant and argued she should be getting victim services instead.

Once in Oregon, it was Sena who fled from the men and alerted her mother to call the FBI, he said.

She has no criminal record and was attending college until October 2018 when she met Fanelli, he said. Fanelli forced her to become a prostitute and dance as a stripper, abusing her physically and mentally, he said.

The young woman thought she had escaped from Fanelli’s grip earlier last month and returned to her mother’s home in New Mexico, her lawyer said. But Fanelli left expletive-filled death threats on her family’s phone, he said.

In one message played in court, a man identified by the defense lawyer as Fanelli started: “Hey, you know who this is.’’ He demandrf Sena’s mother let her daughter return to him or he would “murder, murder, murder. I’ll commit murder.’’

Matthew Anthony Fanelli, left, and Jose Lopez-Jovel

The next day, on Feb. 22, Fanelli shot up the Sena family car, according to Sena’s lawyer. Fearing Fanelli would harm her family, Sena went back to him and he took her to the Deja vu Showgirls strip club in Colorado Springs and forced her to strip, her lawyer said.

When she was done, Fanelli pulled her by the hair, grabbed her lower jaw, made her kiss him and then ordered her to leave with him, though she was barely dressed and it was 15 degrees outside, the defense lawyer told the court, reading from a police report. As Fanelli pulled her out of the club, he is accused of firing shots at the club’s manager and a bouncer, according to Colorado’s El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Government prosecutors said Sena arranged for the Uber ride just hours later, asking her mother to order the car in Denver.

Fanelli, Lopez-Joval and Sena got into the Uber, a black 2015 Cadillac, and the two men then shot and killed the driver, 58-year-old David Rosenthal, according to police.

The three then drove off in the Cadillac. About two hours later, Fanelli and Lopez-Joval robbed a gas station’s convenience store at gunpoint in Cheyenne, Wyoming, about 100 miles north of Denver, and returned to the Cadillac, where Sena was waiting, according to law enforcement.

About six hours later, the three are accused of an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo Bank in Park City, Utah, according to police.

Sena “scoped out’’ the lobby of the Utah bank, while claiming she lost her purse, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Jarrett said. When she walked out, the two men walked in and robbed the bank at gunpoint, the prosecutor said.

All three face federal charges in Utah, accused of bank robbery and using and carrying a firearm in a crime of violence.

The next day, in Oregon, Sena parted ways with Fanelli and Lopez-Joval, Jarrett said.

Sena was able to escape from the two men in Salem, her lawyer said, and she asked her mother to contact the FBI.

“Clearly Ms. Sena is the victim here,’’ Cassino-DuCloux said, arguing for her release and return to her mother in New Mexico.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You said she found the defense argument compelling, but that she must consider the gravity of the allegations. She was concerned, she said, about releasing Sena when Sena has no ties to Oregon and an “amorphous plan’’ to return to her mother in New Mexico.

The judge, though, will allow Sena’s lawyer to return to court early next week to present a more detailed proposal for Sena’s release.

A pretrial services officer argued against Sena’s release, noting that she had left her mother’s home once last month and cited concerns about “outside influences’’ if she returned there.

“She was trying to keep her family from getting killed,’’ Cassino-DuCloux responded. As to outside influences, he added, “The person who committed heinous acts, he’s in jail. He’s in custody.’’

Fanelli remains in custody in Josephine County. He faces a murder warrant out of Colorado, the Utah bank robbery charges and, along with Lopez-Joval, multiple Oregon state charges, including attempted murder, attempted aggravated murder and unlawful use of a weapon. Lopez-Joval is being held in Douglas County. Sena is at the Multnomah County Detention Center, charged in the Utah bank robbery.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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