Post by Joanna on Mar 25, 2015 17:03:08 GMT -5
Woman gets 20 years for dragging boyfriend behind truck
DETROIT LAKES, Minn. – An Ogema woman who murdered her boyfriend August 15, 2014, by strapping him behind his own pickup and dragging him down the road was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison and 10 years supervised probation. Jessica Kilde, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder of Richard Baity, 41, of rural Ogema – the man she says she loved and had planned to marry.
Around 10:30 on the night of August 15, 2014, sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call and possible fatality. They discovered Richard Baity’s lifeless body on East 370th Street in Maple Grove Township. Evidence at the scene suggested the man had been dragged behind the vehicle. Kilde, who, according to her Facebook page, at one time worked as a personal care assistant, had been engaged to Baity and the two planned to marry in less than three weeks. But that night, Kilde said they had a disagreement, although “nothing serious.” But after a day of drinking and smoking meth, it was enough for her to tie her fiancé behind his truck and drag him to his death.
"I don't know why I did what I did," cried Kilde, as she stood before Judge Joe Evans at her sentencing. "He was a great man." Kilde apologized to Baity's family and her own for all the pain she caused them.
The 20 years she will sit in prison pales in comparison to what Baity's mother, Marie Goble, said was their family's sentence. "Ours is a lifetime sentence," said Goble, who wore a T-shirt with her son's name on it, the day he was born, and the day he died. Several members of his family that lived nearby found his body on the road. "I was at the scene – I saw him lying on the road in a puddle of blood," said Goble, who says she sees her son on that road every time she drives past it, in her dreams and in her thoughts during the day. "I never got to tell him goodbye and that I loved him."
Becker County Attorney Gretchen Thilmony and Assistant Attorney General Robert Plesha asked for the maximum amount of time that could be given Kilde under the sentencing guidelines because of the aggravating factors of the case that included the cruel, gratuitous infliction of pain. "She drug him 160 feet down a gravel driveway and onto the road, leaving visible drag and acceleration marks," said Plesha. "Perhaps by the time she stopped, Richard Baity was already dead from strangulation, but we have no way of knowing that, and she didn't either."
Public safety is one of the reasons Judge Evans cited for giving Kilde the maximum sentence. "She said her and Mr. Baity were in love and if she would do something like this to somebody she loves, it makes me wonder what she could do to somebody she doesn't," said Evans. "It was calculated, it was brutal."
Kilde's defense attorneys, Nathan Welte and Stephen Farrazzano, presented three things for the court to take into consideration before sentencing. The first was that Farrazzano said Kilde was taking responsibility for what she did. The second was that Kilde had a "zero criminal history score," meaning she had not committed a crime of this magnitude in the past. (She does have a lengthy criminal record of charges/convictions such as vehicle theft, domestic assaults, check forgery and more.) The third aspect of Kilde's defense was the fact she was purportedly on meth, alcohol and struggling with prescription drug addiction and mental illness at the time of the incident. Her childhood in and out of foster care and group homes was also cited "None of these are excuses," Farrazzano said, "but it does explain a little bit about Jessica."
Kilde, who turned to her family before sentencing to mouth "I love you," did not have family members speak for her, but Mel Manning of The Refuge (ministries) did. He said for the past six years, both Kilde and Baity had been coming in to The Refuge to help out. "I've spent a lot of time talking and praying with both of them," said Manning, who said he has always known that Kilde wasn't perfect, "but the years with her were great," he claimed. "At The Refuge, we work with people who struggle with drugs and alcohol and I see what that junk does."
Kilde, who changed her story at least twice during the investigation, claims she has very little recollection of the incident.
Family members, who described Richard Baity as a "kind-hearted man who would help anybody," took turns reading victim impact statements about how his death has changed their lives. Baity's 12-year-old niece, Destiny, who saw her uncle's body on the road, was among them. "My life has never been the same; I still hear the screams over and over," she said. "Blood makes me sick because I think of my uncle on the road. I don't trust anyone because I'm scared of what they might do."
"What was so bad that she had to murder him? She could have just walked away," Baity's brother, Daniel Goble, added. "When she took away his life, she took away his hopes and his dreams – there's no coming back from that."
Sources: Paula Quam, The Wadena Pioneer Journal, March 20, 2015, Becker County Clerk of Court.