Woman who killed boyfriend seeks reduced sentence
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By Steven Martens | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 |
CLINTON, Iowa — After a year in prison, Lilly Marie Wilkerson will go before a judge Friday and ask that her sentence for killing her boyfriend in a drunk-driving accident be reduced, but the victim’s mother has told a judge her family is opposed to any change.
A hearing on a motion to reconsider Wilkerson’s sentence has been scheduled for Friday afternoon in Clinton County District Court, according to court records.
Last May, Wilkerson, now 22, received a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the death of 24-year-old Jesse Aaron Van Scoyoc. Wilkerson admitted she had been driving drunk in the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 2005, when her car struck a house at 444 11th Ave. S. in Clinton. Van Scoyoc was a passenger in the car.
Wilkerson’s attorney, Murray Bell, filed a motion in January for reconsideration of Wilkerson’s sentence, arguing that she had “made substantial progress in developing maturity and addressing her own problems,” since being incarcerated at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility.
Bell also argued that Wilkerson would have the support of her parents and has a young daughter to take care of.
“The defendant is 22 years old, and her age, coupled with the aforementioned facts, indicated that the incarceration would serve no additional or useful purpose,” Bell wrote in his motion.
Clinton County Attorney Mike Wolf said it is common in cases like Wilkerson’s for the defendant to seek release from prison after completing prison programs such as drug or alcohol rehabilitation. Wolf said he did not know what progress Wilkerson has made in prison, but a representative of the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility is expected to attend Friday’s hearing to give a report.
Wolf said he could not take a position on whether Wilkerson should be released from prison until he had heard all the facts.
Van Scoyoc’s mother, Becky Van Scoyoc of Camanche, has written two letters to Clinton County District Judge Gary McKenrick stating that she and her family are opposed to letting Wilkerson out of prison too soon.
Van Scoyoc wrote that she knows Wilkerson has had problems and that she wants Wilkerson to learn to be a responsible mother to her daughter, but she believes Wilkerson is not ready to be released.
“We feel that getting out too early would put her right back where she was,” Van Scoyoc wrote.
Van Scoyoc wrote that she sympathizes with what Wilkerson and her family are going through because of her older son, Jason Van Scoyoc, who was 18 years old in 1991 when he lost control of a van he was driving and drove through a tent at a campground near Folletts, killing Ernest and Kathy Friis and their two children, Justin, 9, and Jennifer, 5, of Machesney Park, Ill.
Jason Van Scoyoc was convicted on four counts of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but his conviction was overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court. He later pleaded guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and was released from prison after already serving more than two years.
Becky Van Scoyoc wrote that her family was concerned Wilkerson could cause another accident if released from prison too soon.
“We in good conscience could not sit back and have her released before she’s ready,” she wrote. “Another tragedy could happen, and I know I could not live with myself knowing I did not at least try.”
Steven Martens can be contacted at (563) 659-2595 or smartens@qctimes.com.
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