Mom who tried to kill daughter gets 10-22 year
BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — A
judge Wednesday sentenced the mother of an autistic Michigan teenager to
10-22 years in prison for what the woman described as a failed
murder-suicide attempt brought on by despair after years of violent
attacks by her child and failure to find affordable and effective
treatment.
Kelli Rai
Stapleton, 46, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree child abuse in a
bargain with prosecutors who dismissed an attempted murder charge. She
admitted driving her daughter Isabelle to an isolated spot in rural
northern Michigan in September 2013, giving her a sleep-inducing drug
and placing two charcoal-burning grills inside their van.
Both
survived, although Isabelle, now 15, was in a coma for four days and
suffered brain damage. Although largely recovered, she still has memory
loss and problems with balance.
Circuit
Judge James Batzer ordered Stapleton to serve a minimum of 10 years
before becoming eligible for parole, though she will get credit for the
399 days she's already served. He set her maximum sentence at 22 years.
Her
body trembling and her voice breaking, Stapleton apologized repeatedly
before her sentencing to her children, her former husband, her friends
and others. Although her attorney requested probation and community
service, Stapleton herself asked Batzer for a 15-year sentence — "one
year for every year of (Isabelle's) life that I tried to take.""I will spend each moment of each day in anguish for my actions and gratitude for the miracle that brought Issy back," Stapleton said, referring to her daughter by her nickname.
"She is not a monster," Stapleton said. "I am. ... I always have and will always love her beyond measure."
Batzer
rejected the suggestion that Stapleton had faked her suicide attempt
and simply wanted to be rid of her daughter. He said that Stapleton
might have been mentally ill but noted that she had decided against
going to trial on an insanity defense.
"We can have sympathy,"
Batzer said. But he described Stapleton's actions as "profoundly wrong"
and deserving of "a severe price."
Defense
attorney Heidi Hodek said she was disappointed and that imprisoning
Stapleton wouldn't help anyone. Prosecutor Sara Swanson said Stapleton
deserved punishment and the sentence should serve as a deterrent.
"We can't as a society say that it's OK to try to kill your children," Swanson said
On
Wednesday, Hodek read aloud a letter from Matthew Stapleton, written on
behalf of him and his children, which said, "We know and understand in
our hearts that she needs help, not an extended amount of jail time."
Kelli
Stapleton became well known as an outspoken advocate for autism
awareness and blogged about the challenges of finding proper help for
Isabelle.
Stapleton wrote in the summer of 2013 that she was
"suffering from a severe case of battle fatigue" after the family's
insurance company stopped paying for a treatment program and local
officials changed Isabelle's education plan.
She later told authorities she had concluded the best solution would be if she and her daughter "went to heaven."
During
a three-day sentencing hearing, friends and relatives said Stapleton
was a loving but broken mother, while other family members described her
as selfish and devious.
Batzer
said he had received letters from around the nation about the case,
which generated sharp debate among advocates of those with disabilities.
Ari
Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, argued for
sentencing Stapleton "the same way a mother of a non-disabled child
would be sentenced for a comparable crime."
Forensic
psychiatrist Carole Lieberman, who examined Stapleton in July,
testified that Stapleton was suffering from post-traumatic stress and
bipolar disorders and was legally insane when attempting the
murder-suicide.
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