The West Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request by a St. Albans woman to reject her life sentence for her role in killing another woman.
Jessica May Wilson's lawyers argued that prosecutors broke the plea deal agreed to by both sides in the case. But justices said that prosecutors did nothing wrong and were just explaining the facts of the case to Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom before he sentenced Wilson.
In April 2015, Bloom sent Wilson to prison for life without the possibility of parole after she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Nancy Burdette Lynch.
Lynch, 66, was found in her St. Albans home in January 2014, several days after she was killed. According to police and prosecutors, Wilson and Timothy Shafer had planned to rob her of money and prescription painkillers.
In the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss seven other related charges against Wilson. They also agreed to stay silent at sentencing, but specifically reserved the right to cross-examine witnesses called by Wilson's attorneys and to correct any factual inaccuracies stated by the defense.
At the hearing, Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Fred Giggenbach told the judge that Wilson and her lawyers were trying to minimize her involvement in Lynch's death. He said she was trying to portray herself as a victim of her co-defendant, Shafer, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in August 2014. (A third person, Megan Hughes, was sentenced by Bloom to up to 20 years in prison after she went to Lynch's home with Shafer several times after the murder to steal things.)
After Wilson was sentenced to life without chance of parole, her attorneys asked Bloom to throw out the guilty plea, arguing that Giggenbach had broken the plea deal. They asked the judge to either reduce Wilson's sentence or void the plea agreement.
Bloom denied the request, saying that he didn't think prosecutors had said anything out of line, and nothing they had said had influenced his sentence. Wilson's attorneys then appealed the sentence to the state Supreme Court.
Justice Robin Davis wrote in Thursday's decision that the prosecution "did not breach its agreement to remain silent as to sentencing, there were no improper factors considered in the court's sentencing decision, and the sentence imposed was well within the court's discretion and amply justified under the facts and circumstances of this case."
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