magicvalley.com: Twin Falls woman sentenced to life for lewdness charge.
Elko, Nevada — A Twin Falls woman convicted of forcing a 13-year-old boy to touch her breasts was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Taylor, 34, was convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14 in November after a week-long trial in Elko County, Nev., District Judge Mike Memeo’s courtroom.
With the conviction, Taylor faced a mandatory life sentence, and Memeo set parole eligibility after 10 years, the minimum sentence. If released on parole she must register as a sex offender and will be under lifetime supervision.
The district attorney’s office did not offer a plea agreement in the case, said public defender Alina Kilpatrick, who argued the sentence is unconstitutional and doesn’t fit the crime.
“The jury was not allowed to know the potential sentence in this case and the Legislature doesn’t know the facts,” she said, alluding to the minimum sentence set by the Legislature in Nevada Revised Statute.
Kilpatrick said despite the parole eligibility after 10 years, there should be no mistake that it’s a life sentence for Taylor. “She is getting a greater penalty for having a boy touch her breast than if she killed him,” she said.
After he sentenced her, Memeo said he was bound by state statute to impose the life sentence, but said he isn’t sure why the prosecution chose to charge her under that statute. (After? You should have questioned this before sentencing, you idiot)
Taylor, who lived in Jackpot, Nev., at the time of the crime, kissed a friend’s child, forced him to touch her breast and asked him to have sex with her in February 2008. (If this is a fact, then why was she not charged on this allegation? Because it was not prosecuted , it is unlikely to be true. )
Taylor claimed she was intoxicated and doesn’t remember what happened that night. She told jurors she roughhoused with the boy, but didn’t force him to touch her inappropriately.
As long as murderers get more lenient sentencing than sex offenders do, this societal sex offender hysteria should eventually collapse. As it is now, sex offenders are encouraged by the legal system to kill their victims rather than allow them to live. Is that the incentive we want? If they simply murder the victim, there is no one to testify against them. They would get a much lighter sentence and be completely "free" after completing their sentence, rather than being listed on a sex offender registry for the remainder of their life.
