A deal for the lesser charge
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis STAFF WRITER - Published: December 18, 2009
A West Rutland woman charged with murdering her husband last year pleaded guilty Thursday to a lesser charge of manslaughter that could send her to jail for up to 15 years.
Wendy Pelkey-Grant, 44, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, Sean Grant, who was found dead at the couple's home on Smith Street on April 19, 2008.
But following a judge's decision in October to suppress nearly all of Pelkey-Grant's statements to police in the hours and days following Grant's death, prosecutors allowed her to plead to the lesser charge.
Under the terms of the deal, the prosecution will ask for an 11-year to 15-year prison sentence that the defense will be able to contest.
"The decision was made based on the status of the evidence," Rutland County State's Attorney Marc Brierre said Thursday afternoon.
Brierre declined to talk about the status of the evidence, but Grant's sister, Jennifer Cavacas, said the prosecutor's office told family members that the decision to offer a plea deal was based on the suppression of the police interviews.
"We didn't see much choice and we were glad they sat down and explained it to us."
But Cavacas said the deal lacked the finality and accountability her family hoped for.
"I really just want her to admit that what she did was not necessary," Cavacas said. "I want her to admit that there was another way out of the situation."
Pelkey-Grant told police that she shot her 36-year-old husband to defend her children. But after comparing Pelkey-Grant's statements with the physical evidence, prosecutors charged her with murder.
The inconsistencies most highlighted by police and prosecutors were in witness accounts that Grant went upstairs to fetch the revolver in the middle of an argument with Pelkey-Grant's two children. Investigators said that claim proved to be a story concocted after the shooting to deflect blame away from Pelkey-Grant, who retrieved the gun from Grant's room herself, according to court records.
In interviews with police days after the shooting, Alyssia Pelkey and Eric Hall — Pelkey-Grant's two children — told police they made up the story about Grant bringing the gun into the argument to shield their mother.
But the state police interviews conducted with Pelkey-Grant were found to have violated her Miranda rights because investigators didn't inform her of her right to remain silent and later ignored that right by pressing ahead with questions after she told detectives she didn't want to talk.
The violation rankled Cavacas, who said her family expected more from the state police.
"I'm upset. They should have known better," she said. "When you think of the state police, you think of a higher level of service."
Pelkey-Grant's statements may still factor into her sentencing.
Judge Thomas Zonay gave the prosecution until Jan. 7 and defense attorneys until Jan. 21 to file motions on whether the police interviews should be admitted into the pretrial sentencing process and sentencing hearing for Pelkey-Grant.
Pelkey-Grant's attorney Matthew Harnett declined to comment Thursday.
Pelkey-Grant, who has been in jail since April 2008, remained behind bars Thursday on $150,000 bail.
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
38