Dodge City ? An Arkansas woman has been convicted of her role in a Dodge City robbery-kidnapping three years ago in which the victim chewed through his bindings and escaped.

The crime started a three-state manhunt that ended with Carrie Travis, 21, of Mena, Ark., critically wounded and two of her accomplices killed in a shootout with authorities in northwestern New Mexico.

Travis’ trial was to have started Tuesday, but she pleaded no-contest Friday to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that the prosecution likely would be able to get a conviction at trial.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors will recommend that Travis receive a maximum of 10 years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crimes is 50 years in prison.

Rodney Wormington, of Dodge City, was taken in January 2003 from his motor home in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. Besides Travis, officials said Stanley Fugate and Melinda Rothenay, also of Mena, Ark., were involved in the abduction.

Wormington managed to escape soon after he was kidnapped, and his abductors were chased briefly by Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers before the patrol lost track of them.

The suspects were found the next day in New Mexico, where they became involved in a shootout with police. Fugate and Rothenay were killed in the confrontation.