Sentence Reduced for Casper-Area Woman Convicted of Child Abuse
A woman who was sentenced in September to serve prison time for two counts of felony child abuse saw her sentence reduced at the conclusion of a court hearing Thursday.
Jordan Reann Fleck, 27, was originally sentenced to serve 18-36 months in prison. District Judge Catherine Wilking has reduced that term to 15-30 months.
Fleck has served over 220 days of the sentence, and just five days ago was transferred to the Casper Re-Entry Center. With the reduced sentence, Fleck will still have to serve time at CRC, but may have an opportunity at being released earlier.
She still has to pay a large amount of restitution. The original sentence specified a total of $5,528.50. Wilking said her intent with the decision is to focus on those payments, as well as payments Fleck must make to the Crime Victim's Compensation Fund.
Fleck entered guilty pleas in April 2017. Charging papers say the victim's parents reported their child's physical injuries to the Natrona County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 24, 2016, after Fleck babysat the child two days earlier.
That injury was determined by doctors at Wyoming Medical Center to have been "an acute closed head injury, manifesting as a posterior scalp hematoma."
The child's parents also told investigators that on Sept. 15, 2016, the mother picked the child up from Fleck's house and found significant bruising on the child's right hip.
A doctor who reviewed a photograph of the bruise said the bruise was "related to direct, unexplained, forceful blunt trauma," according to court documents.
Fleck admitted to an investigator that she had caused the child's injuries. She said she would have the child stand in a corner when he would misbehave, but on both occasions she lost control of her emotions and shoved the child into the corner multiple times.
Fleck's mother, Diana Stoick, spoke in court Thursday on Fleck's behalf. She outlined the difficulties of having Fleck incarcerated while her husband tries to juggle caring for their young children and working.
"I have missed my son's first birthday, his first steps, his first words," Fleck told Wilking in her own statement to the court. Fleck also said that her time in prison has changed her "tremendously," calling it a "humiliating and degrading" experience.
Fleck's attorney, Christopher Humphrey, said Fleck has already been denied a chance at parole. He asked that Wilking release Fleck on probation.
"It's rare that I have an individual with a lot of support," Humphrey told Wilking.
Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen, in responding to Humphrey's request, emphasized the impact of Fleck's crimes on the victim and the victim's family.
"A criminal case isn't about the defendant's well-being as much as it's about their punishment," Blonigen said. He then proceeded to quote from a victim impact statement provide by the victim's mother during last year's sentencing hearing.
"I will never fully be able to explain what she took from me," the mother said. "I'll always ache for what my son went through."
Blonigen called the crimes a breach of trust, and said he believed the sentence should not be reduced. He said Fleck's earliest opportunity at parole would be Sept. 23.
"It's a very difficult case. It's a very difficult request," Wilking said of the motion for a sentence reduction, adding that she usually doesn't even hold hearings on such motions.
After hearing Blonigen's position and reducing Fleck's sentence, Wilking said, "There has still been a significant punishment component in this case."