The court held the sentencing hearing yesterday. From my understanding, this was something of a formality since Ragsdale, the prosecutors and the judge had already agreed to a sentence in the plea agreement.
Basically, the hearing was people to express how Kristy's death has affected them. Ann spoke for about 20 minutes, a cousin got up, the parents of the 8-year-old witness spoke about how it has affected him and their lives, and someone a couple others spoke as well.
In the end, the sentence was what we assumed it would be, per the plea agreement -- 20 years to life with the possibility of parole. That means that he won't be eligible for parole for 20 years, but he may never get it. If you read the comments to the online news stories you'll see people are very upset, thinking he got off easy. I have two things to say about that. First, they assume he WILL be out in 20 years, or less, which isn't true. Second, from what we have heard, he will be in solitary confinement for the first five years because the inmates in the state pen have already made it clear how they feel about him. I'm not condoning such behavior, just saying anyone who thinks he's getting off easy is out of touch with reality.
You can read more at www.ksl.com, www.deseretnews.com, and www.sltrib.com.
tp
2 comments:
Glad to see that you are getting some closure on this. Hope things are well with you guys. We are in SLC so if you are ever up, lets do lunch.
Its healthy to be able to accept it and not be upset wanting more. In the end we all know he will get all he deserves. I pray if he ever does get out, he never has a girlfriend.
Post a Comment