A long overdue update

Well, several months have passed since I've given any updates and I'm sorry for that. I had been so frustrated with the same thing, month after month; a pretrial hearing & then a continuance.

Last month, I received a call from Melissa Clark's office asking if my mother in law and I can come in for a meeting w/Melissa b/c the defense had an offer that they wanted to present to us. So, as my mother in law and I had done several times before, we drove to Daytona Beach, with Ella and met with Melissa Clark.

Before Melissa gave us the offer that the defense had, she prefaced by saying that even though he was being tried as an adult, "more than likely" he would be considered a youthful offender. The maximum sentence for a youthful offender is 6 years, total. Meaning any combination of jail and/or probation. The defense's offer was 4 years total: 2 years jail, 2 years probation. She also said that we should take into consideration that if he is well behaved, he would probably only serve about 85% of his sentence. So, not even a full 2 years in jail??? Really? Well, guess what? I interrupted her politely and told her "NO." It's been almost 2 years since Steve was killed! It feels like a lifetime ago and yet it feels like just yesterday I walked out of my house and yelled "I love you" to my husband before leaving. FOUR years is not something that I am going to agree with.

Melissa said that we can say no all together or we can counter offer. Well, we counter offered with 8 years (even though max for youthful offender is 6 years), 4 and 4. I told Melissa what our counter offer was and she said she would present it to the defense. She called me right back and said that the defendant was more than likely going to plea open. I've learned that this basically means that he's going to enter his plea to the judge with no deal on the table. After that conversation, we agreed that she'd call me back once they went to the next pretrial hearing, which took place last week.

On Friday, the 13th, I got a voice message from Melissa saying that Allen Mompoint entered an open plea and that the sentencing hearing was scheduled for Thursday, January 7 at 1:30pm. She asked me to call her back so she can tell me what this all means and to make sure that all of our questions are answered.

I called Melissa back today. Here's what's going to go down. Like I said before, the hearing is on 1/7/10 (10 days before the 2 year anniversary of Steve's death, by the way!), this is when we get to address the judge and say what we want to say. The defendant and his family will have the same opportunity on this day. She warned me that Allen Mompoint will probably be crying and be very remorseful. His family will talk about him being a good student, a model child and whatever other bull shit they can say.

I asked Melissa if the judge will have all of the information about the case, the accident, what happened, etc. She said she knows he will have the police report which outlines the crash and the speeds the defendant was going. [A quick side note: in the police report, it is stated that the defendant was going 45 mph! The accident reconstruction expert said that at the time of impact, his car into Steve's, he was going about 50 to 55mph!! I wonder if the judge will have that info!] She did however say that she wasn't sure if the judge will have the info that states that there was almost 2 feet of intrusion into the car (into Steve) from the crash! Little bits of info like that may or may not be read by the judge!

The judge will have two different reports. By what I understood, they are reports about Allen Mompoint. Things like how far he'd gone in school, any prior arrests if any, tickets, did he serve in the military, is he married, does he have children, etc. There's a recommendation on one as to what his sentence should be if he's tried as a juvenille (which he isn't) and the other is a recommendation as to what his sentence should be if he's tried as an adult/youthful offender. Please don't quote me on this b/c I'm not sure if I understood her correctly.
So, basically, it's up to us to make sure the judge knows all those same things about Steve.

Let's think about this for a minute and maybe compare a little:
How far Steve went in school: Masters Degree obtained, going back for PhD
Prior arrests: NONE
Tickets: One b/c he didn't change lanes in time when a cop had someone else pulled over. The ticket was dismissed.
Did he serve in the military: United States Air Force!
Was he married: Uh, yeah.
Children: Beautiful baby Ella and he took Ciana on as his own!

So, because Steve's immediate family is rather large, we will probably be the only ones that will have the chance to actually speak to the judge directly on that day. However, this is what I am asking anyone and everyone: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! Write a letter to the judge! Talk to him about Steve, who he was to you, how he affected your life, how he made an impact, how much he is missed, anything! I am asking that you all send these letters to me. Email me or send them in the mail. I would like to have these letters delivered to the judge so that he can read through them prior to the sentencing hearing! I want to make a statement!!! Steve had over 300 people at his funeral! It would really say a lot, in my opinion, if the judge received 300 letters talking about Steve and what a great loss we have all suffered in having lost him!

Please get in contact with me. I will give you my email address or my mailing address and please send me something, anything. We are pleading with this judge to allow justice to be served and for Allen Mompoint to receive just punishment for his recklessness!

We have waited almost 2 years and this will be the only time that we will have the chance to be heard. Please help me fight for this, in Steve's honor! I need everyone's help!

Thank you so much! Thank you for continually being so supportive and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! It means more than you know. We need those prayers.