Hope Sykes arrested 1/20/2010

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I understand the tougher stance on drugs in Florida and other states, but there should be some sort of equality here. If there are these types of sentences for people who deal there should be stiffer sentences for child molesters, murderers (manslaughter included), etc...

I spent some time today on the Florida DOC website, trying to find inmates serving 15 years and up for trafficking. I found one (although I know there's more, I didn't spend all day looking). This inmate had a 25 year sentence for trafficking cocaine, I believe it was 30 kilos, but am not sure (it was a lot). Anyway, most of the trafficking violators had a 3-4 year sentence. One female had one trafficking charge, a sale/manufacture charge and two other felony charges...she was serving 4 years.

I ran across a female convicted of voluntary manslaughter serving six years, she'll be out in 4 with good time.

Tough on crime is fine, but make it applicable to all.
 
Searchfortruth said:
I understand the tougher stance on drugs in Florida and other states, but there should be some sort of equality here. If there are these types of sentences for people who deal there should be stiffer sentences for child molesters, murderers (manslaughter included), etc...

I spent some time today on the Florida DOC website, trying to find inmates serving 15 years and up for trafficking. I found one (although I know there's more, I didn't spend all day looking). This inmate had a 25 year sentence for trafficking cocaine, I believe it was 30 kilos, but am not sure (it was a lot). Anyway, most of the trafficking violators had a 3-4 year sentence. One female had one trafficking charge, a sale/manufacture charge and two other felony charges...she was serving 4 years.

I ran across a female convicted of voluntary manslaughter serving six years, she'll be out in 4 with good time.

Tough on crime is fine, but make it applicable to all.
Click to expand...

Equal Justice...I am all for it. I think that Putnam County has heard the rumblings of murmuring about the revolving door on the drug court there. Perhaps they are quite aware in the bench of the attention their little Fl town is getting.
 
Concerned Papa said:
From the Florida Department of Corrections:



Hope Sykes will cost me and the other taxpayers here in Florida, $284,700.00 over the next 15 years for the less than $4,000 worth of pills she and her co defendants sold.
Click to expand...

Remember, she was ordered to pay a $250,000.00 fine, so she'll almost be paying her own way IMO
 
scrabble said:
Do I understand correctly that Ron's cousin got fifteen years for selling 25 pills?
Click to expand...

Yes, you are understanding it correctly. Except it really should be more like she got 15 years for being in the car when 25 pills were sold. IMO
 
Searchfortruth said:
I don't see Hope paying that off. I wonder what happens when they don't pay ?
Click to expand...

In the off chance that she ever becomes a working member of society she will have to pay a percentage of her wages to her fines, if she owns a home they will file a lien against it, if she gets paid for an interview or writes a book about Misty they will take that money towards her fines....
 
Searchfortruth said:
I understand the tougher stance on drugs in Florida and other states, but there should be some sort of equality here. If there are these types of sentences for people who deal there should be stiffer sentences for child molesters, murderers (manslaughter included), etc...

I spent some time today on the Florida DOC website, trying to find inmates serving 15 years and up for trafficking. I found one (although I know there's more, I didn't spend all day looking). This inmate had a 25 year sentence for trafficking cocaine, I believe it was 30 kilos, but am not sure (it was a lot). Anyway, most of the trafficking violators had a 3-4 year sentence. One female had one trafficking charge, a sale/manufacture charge and two other felony charges...she was serving 4 years.

I ran across a female convicted of voluntary manslaughter serving six years, she'll be out in 4 with good time.

Tough on crime is fine, but make it applicable to all.
Click to expand...

If you look at the statutes it depends on the drug and the amount.
Level one is a three year mandatory.
Level two is a fifteen year mandatory minimum.
And level three is a twenty five year mandatory minimum.

Then take all the people who agreed to plea to something other than trafficking so they didn't have a minimum mandatory, the ones that went to drug court and got treatment, the ones that got into the youthful offenders and did bootcamp.

She is not being treated unfairly.
She just continued on her long path of making bad decisions.
It is tragic and a total waste.

And I am not a fan of mandatory minimums and think drugs should be legalized.
 
Searchfortruth said:
I understand the tougher stance on drugs in Florida and other states, but there should be some sort of equality here. If there are these types of sentences for people who deal there should be stiffer sentences for child molesters, murderers (manslaughter included), etc...

I spent some time today on the Florida DOC website, trying to find inmates serving 15 years and up for trafficking. I found one (although I know there's more, I didn't spend all day looking). This inmate had a 25 year sentence for trafficking cocaine, I believe it was 30 kilos, but am not sure (it was a lot). Anyway, most of the trafficking violators had a 3-4 year sentence. One female had one trafficking charge, a sale/manufacture charge and two other felony charges...she was serving 4 years.

I ran across a female convicted of voluntary manslaughter serving six years, she'll be out in 4 with good time.

Tough on crime is fine, but make it applicable to all.
Click to expand...

What was it? 15 or 18 or so grams? 1 gram = approx. the weight of a dollar bill. I respect the posters that believe this sentence is fair; one really made me think.. Dr. Fessell? These are not his exact words but his reasoning was that the dealers in effect kill people who overdose. A good argument. This was hydrocodone, right, though? Lortabs. Not like it was Oxycontin...15 years for an 18 year old?

I think that's sad. I wonder if there was a better way to spend the money the state will spend on her for 15 years. I wonder if some kind of less expensive therapy would be better than destroying the prime of her life.

She grew up in drugs, right? I would support this kind of sentence for a rapist, a murderer, a killer... but anyway I think something is wrong with this. Yes, I know she had priors.
 
aksleuth said:
Yes, he did. It's the younger ones who were naive, as younger ones usually are, consequences-wise. RC knew he could get into big trouble. Donna Brock certainly should have known, as did Tommy. They've gotten away with things for a long time and didn't expect to be caught. I consider the two girls (H & M) to be a little less aware at the harshness of punishment. Those over 21, with families, certainly should have known the consequences. What's really amazing is how these people did this knowing they were being watched because of Haleigh. Boggles the mind.
Click to expand...

If LE wanted them incarcerated while they continue to work on solving Haleigh's murder, they certainly made it easy for LE.
 
I just hope that Haleighs case doesn't end up in the unsolved files, by doing this. Now that the DEA is a failed agency, and they can't catch the real drug dealers, there going to waste our tax dollars on this small time aspirin like stuff. This is so petty. If their all going to get this much time for this, where is the incentive to tell the truth about what happened to Haleigh. I hope this was just to scare Misty into telling the truth, because she is a professional liar, and I don't see her ever telling the truth.
 
A drug trafficer is a silent murderer, a killer - IMO
we often do not know who their victims are and these people are seldom prosecuted for the additional crimes they commit
 
legalmania said:
I just hope that Haleighs case doesn't end up in the unsolved files, by doing this. Now that the DEA is a failed agency, and they can't catch the real drug dealers, there going to waste our tax dollars on this small time aspirin like stuff. This is so petty. If their all going to get this much time for this, where is the incentive to tell the truth about what happened to Haleigh. I hope this was just to scare Misty into telling the truth, because she is a professional liar, and I don't see her ever telling the truth.
Click to expand...


I was thinking this too...if Ron and Misty get 25 yrs. they may think thats enough punishment and at that point like you said legalmania, there is no incentive to tell the truth.
 
tragco said:
What was it? 15 or 18 or so grams? 1 gram = approx. the weight of a dollar bill. I respect the posters that believe this sentence is fair; one really made me think.. Dr. Fessell? These are not his exact words but his reasoning was that the dealers in effect kill people who overdose. A good argument. This was hydrocodone, right, though? Lortabs. Not like it was Oxycontin...15 years for an 18 year old?

I think that's sad. I wonder if there was a better way to spend the money the state will spend on her for 15 years. I wonder if some kind of less expensive therapy would be better than destroying the prime of her life.

She grew up in drugs, right? I would support this kind of sentence for a rapist, a murderer, a killer... but anyway I think something is wrong with this. Yes, I know she had priors.
Click to expand...


I hear you and I go back and forth on it.

Another thing I think about is what Donna Brocks friend said on that phone call. You were selling the same pills they think that little girl may have died from.
 
impatientredhead said:
If you look at the statutes it depends on the drug and the amount.
Level one is a three year mandatory.
Level two is a fifteen year mandatory minimum.
And level three is a twenty five year mandatory minimum.

Then take all the people who agreed to plea to something other than trafficking so they didn't have a minimum mandatory, the ones that went to drug court and got treatment, the ones that got into the youthful offenders and did bootcamp.

She is not being treated unfairly.
She just continued on her long path of making bad decisions.
It is tragic and a total waste.

And I am not a fan of mandatory minimums and think drugs should be legalized.
Click to expand...
Impatient I so appreciate your posts, you are handy to have around here.

I do understand the sentences are based on the drug and weight, but there seems to be a disparity between cocaine/meth trafficking and opiates (prescription drugs). There seems to also be a disparity between those charged with trafficking (the more serious charge) and S/M/D. The choice as to what the defendant gets charged with is suppossed to be dependant on the weight of the drug, I believe there is much prosecutorial discretion involved. I am no legal expert, but do enjoy reading about the law and have read some on this issue in an attempt to understand.

I believe Hope was told about the possibilities involved with her guilty (no contest) plea, but it's possible her lawyer told her that she had a chance to get the YO program. I am not seeing a lot of trafficking sentences like this in the FL data base, so I imagine Hopes lawyer may not have defended many herself.

I would like to see a picture of Hope's lawyers face when the sentence was handed down.
 
impatientredhead said:
If you look at the statutes it depends on the drug and the amount.
Level one is a three year mandatory.
Level two is a fifteen year mandatory minimum.
And level three is a twenty five year mandatory minimum.

Then take all the people who agreed to plea to something other than trafficking so they didn't have a minimum mandatory, the ones that went to drug court and got treatment, the ones that got into the youthful offenders and did bootcamp.

She is not being treated unfairly.
She just continued on her long path of making bad decisions.
It is tragic and a total waste.

And I am not a fan of mandatory minimums and think drugs should be legalized.
Click to expand...

One bad decision was to go out selling these drugs with the young woman (Misty) LE has called "key" in a child murder investigation two weeks after another drug offense. It's a pity she decided to do this to herself. I don't believe she was that unaware of the consequences of her actions. On the phone to her Mother she said she'd rather take the 15 years than another option she thought she had.
 
Searchfortruth said:
Impatient I so appreciate your posts, you are handy to have around here.

I do understand the sentences are based on the drug and weight, but there seems to be a disparity between cocaine/meth trafficking and opiates (prescription drugs). There seems to also be a disparity between those charged with trafficking (the more serious charge) and S/M/D. The choice as to what the defendant gets charged with is suppossed to be dependant on the weight of the drug, I believe there is much prosecutorial discretion involved. I am no legal expert, but do enjoy reading about the law and have read some on this issue in an attempt to understand.

I believe Hope was told about the possibilities involved with her guilty (no contest) plea, but it's possible her lawyer told her that she had a chance to get the YO program. I am not seeing a lot of trafficking sentences like this in the FL data base, so I imagine Hopes lawyer may not have defended many herself.

I would like to see a picture of Hope's lawyers face when the sentence was handed down.
Click to expand...

I think the real issue here is that we all know she is collateral damage to the Ron and Misty show. Anyone that has followed the scanner thread for five minutes or watched the booking website for Putnam KNOWS that they are not busting every petty drug transaction and booking them on trafficking charges.

She did commit the crime. She did make bad decisions before hand and she made really ignorant comments on tape that bit her in the *advertiser censored* with the judge, but we all know if she wasn't Ron's cousin and she wasn't with Misty that night she would not be getting ready to do a fifteen year sentence.

Donna has a private attorney right? One that is not being paid by the state? I highly doubt you will see her convicted of trafficking. She will get the charge down to something else that doesn't have a minimum or she will beg the court to let her go to treatment for a deferred prosecution.

No one in their right mind takes a plea that involves a trafficking charge in Florida. Even the defense attorney websites in the area all say the first thing they do in a trafficking case is try to get it changed to a possession charge. That in and of itself is considered a victory.

Legally what happened to Hope is fair and just and exactly what the law the local voters put in place calls for. I have major issues with cases that I think only poor and uneducated citizens would be victims of. When they hauled Tommy in on the gun the charge I thought they were taking advantage of him being poor and dumb. When Lisa was extradited I felt the same way. Of course part of me says whatever it takes to break the case, but when I step back and know a more affluent and educated citizen would NEVER be hauled in on those charges because an hourly attorney would have them out in a matter of hours it is hard for me to stomach.

And I think Hope is an absolute victim of not being educated enough to defend herself and not affluent enough to hire an attorney.
 
I guess I'm on the fence here. I do understand that prescription drugs have taken over, Florida really has a problem with them. If these new laws help to combat that, it's a good thing for everyone. Now, if this had been Ron or Misty going "up the river" for a long time, I'd be doing back flips. For some reason Hope struck me as a lesser evil. I hear her disrespectful attitude on the phone with her mom, but I also hear her deliriously happy state of mind over her ride to court with Ron (that is sad to me).
 
No one should miss post #272 by grandmaj listing Hope's other arrests. 5 within 7 months. Thank you grandmaj for posting that information. I too think the judge got it right.
 
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