My husband and I sat in the courtroom today while my daughter was sentenced.  I feel relieved that the 3 months of waiting is over (from arrest to sentencing). I feel like crying except I am on a plane right now.  I feel like throwing up. I also feel that the judge was fair as he gave both the sentence she deserved and mercy.

We were already sitting in the courtroom when she was escorted in by a law enforcement officer.  As she entered, she looked up, saw us and froze for a moment, clearly shocked to see us. We locked eyes for a moment then she broke eye contact and shuffled to her seat on the opposite side of the room. She wore a pale blue prison jumpsuit.  Manacles were around both ankles with about a 6 inch chain between, thus the shuffle. A chain was around her waist; manacles around the wrists which were hooked to the waist chain with just enough length to enable her to hold papers. All in all a pretty humiliating situation. I’m glad. The consequences of breaking the law should be unpleasant.

She was sentenced for two cases; 3 felony counts of credit card fraud and a felony grand theft for each case.  A young man, an Afghanistan vet who was the plaintiff for one of the cases, gave a victim statement. He talked about her stealing an electronic notebook from him though he only realized that later. He bought another one and she later stole that one. She racked up enough credit card charges against his cards that it dropped his credit score 100 points and prevented him from buying a house. He talked about confronting her and trying to wait for her to “make things right” without success.

The other plaintiff, another young man, chose to give a victim impact statement without appearing in court. I have heard a bit about that case from another source and believe it was mainly credit card charges though I think also there were other items taken as well.

The prosecuting Attorney gave a statement followed by one from the defense attorney. Both gave fair assessments of my daughter’s behavior as well as fair requests for sentencing.

Her judgement was for 10 years with a two year minimum before she is eligible for probation. That sentence was then put on hold and she is being put into a year long rehab program within the department of corrections which means jail but not penitentiary.  If she successfully goes through that program it is possible that she could be let out on probation for the remainder of the 10 years. If she fails the program, my understanding is that she will be sent to prison until the 2 year minimum is met.

My daughter has 365 days to actively work to break her compulsion to steal. In prior treatment she has “played the game” until completion of treatment then went straight back to stealing. Is she going to decide to change this time?  I have always felt that Jesus could break her addiction if He is her first choice. Only time will tell.