Суд над Роулсоном: приговор

(продолжение, предыдущая часть здесь)

Роулсон получил пожизненный срок без возможности условного освобождения. Приговор сообщнику (вынесенный гораздо раньше) изменен в виде сокращения срока с 25 лет до 8.

EXPANDED STORY: Roalson gets life sentence for Radisson murder 

Posted: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 10:26 am 

By Terrell Boettcher News Editor 

Thirty-year-old Christopher Roalson of Radisson was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday, March 4 in Sawyer County Court for first degree intentional homicide and armed burglary in the brutal May 3, 2009 stabbing death of 93-year-old Irena Roszak in her Radisson home. 

Last September Roalson was found guilty of the charges in a five-day trial heard here by a jury empaneled from Polk County.  

In a statement on behalf of Irena Roszak’s family, her daughter Marianne “Krista” Muellner told Judge Kenneth Kutz that “Roalson did not go to my mom’s house just to rob, but to kill somebody — and he did: he stabbed her 18 times, grabbed a stool and hit her and hit her and hit her.” 

Roalson “used to play in Irena’s yard with my youngest son,” Muellner added. “They went to school together and he (Roalson) knew the layout of my mom’s house. He knew who she was, that she was hard of hearing and couldn’t speak English very well. For him to do this to our family is beyond compare. I could not imagine a person going and killing a 93-year-old woman in cold blood while she was sleeping and think that this was OK. We feel that he should get life in prison without parole.” 

In his argument for a sentence of life without parole, District Attorney Bruce Poquette said that after killing Roszak, Roalson had told friend Jaclyn Walczak, “They’ll never get me. If I get away with it, I will do it again.’  I think that’s what this sentencing is all about — his character and attitude about what has occurred. This is a brutal and horrific crime.” 

Poquette said the court also must consider the character of the defendant, the viciousness and aggravated nature of the crime, undesirable behavior patterns of the defendant, his remorse and need for rehabilitative measures and the rights of the public.

Roalson’s “purpose was to kill,” Poquette said. “The victim was a vulnerable person. Roalson convinced another vulnerable person (Austin Davis), who was just 15 years old, to join him in this endeavor. They dressed all in black and armed themselves with knives. He blames everyone other than himself for the situation he finds himself in.

“The need to protect the public is extremely high; no extended supervision should be offered” to Roalson, Poquette added.

Defense attorney Donna Kuchler said Roalson had a “minor criminal record; he‘s not a person with a history of violence.” Twenty years in prison “is a long time” and if he is offered a chance to be released in 20 years, he would be in his 50s, she added. The crime that occurred on May 3, 2009, was “a burglary gone bad,” she said. 

In a statement, Roalson told the judge, “I am very sorry for what happened to Ms. Roszak. She didn’t deserve that. The intent that night was only to commit burglary. I’m not a violent person or someone who hangs out with violent people.”

Judge Kutz told Roalson, “You shattered the peacefulness that people living in a small community expect. Nobody deserves to have a loved one lose their life in this fashion. This murder was extremely aggravated,” as shown by the crime scene photos that Kutz ruled that could not be shown to the jury because they were too graphic.

Roalson “blames the bulk of this on Austin Davis,” the judge added. Roszak “was in the wrong place at the wrong time” when she was killed. She “lived a blameless life and was well-liked in the community.”

Kutz ruled that Roalson is jointly liable with co-defendant Austin Davis to pay restitution of more than $9,300, including insurance companies, funeral expenses for Irena Roszak and utility costs for Roszak’s home. 

The judge credited Roalson with 1,397 days served in the county jail since he was arrested May 7, 2009. On the request of the prosecution, Kutz dismissed several pending misdemeanors against Roalson for restitution purposes, including two counts of obstructing or resisting an officer. 

At a hearing last December before Judge John P. Anderson, 18-year-old Austin Davis of Ojibwa received a revised sentence of eight years in prison followed by seven years extended supervision on a conviction of party to second-degree intentional homicide in Roszak’s death. 

http://www.haywardwi.com/news/article_8d2fde84-867a-11e2-92da-001a4bcf887a.html