GUILTY SC - Briana Nicole Rabon, 18, Elgin, 27 Feb 2014

[zwiebel]

Briana's killer entered guilty pleas to all charges. Maximum sentence was life plus 30 years and 30 days. Judge just sentenced him to 50. Trying to find out if that's with or without the possibility of parole.

[video=twitter;648558352230936576]https://twitter.com/AllieSpillyards/status/648558352230936576[/video]

 

[zwiebel]

Briana's family turned down a chance to hear Kelly's version of the events of that night. His mother told the court drugs were to blame. The family recently lost a younger son in a car accident.

Kelly remained emotionless during details of his crime and the pain it caused to Briana's loved ones. His lawyer later apologized, saying he had told Kelly not to show emotion. However, when it came to defense setting out all Kelly would miss out on by going to jail for a long time, Kelly started to sob and tears ran down his face.

From reporter Allie Spillyards' tweets:

https://twitter.com/AllieSpillyards

 

[Madeleine74]

Drugs only kill in cases of an overdose. And that didn't happen here. People kill people. The only one to blame is this 21 yr old (now 22 or 23).

 

[zwiebel]

Although defense and defense witnesses spoke of drug addiction issues being the root of Briana's murder, prosecution pointed out he's showed no rehabilitation at all after the crime. They monitored 6 jail calls from him asking for drugs and asking how to make alcohol.

Investigators were horrified by the crime scene and Briana's clothing was shown in court. It had been sliced from her body.

Wis article updated now but it doesn't say if sentence is with possibility of parole or not either. Not sure how old Kelly is. Maybe the same age as Briana, looking at the mugshot at the link. So 70 something if he's freed after 50 years?

http://www.wistv.com/story/30130290/kelly-pleas-guilty-to-rape-murder-of-briana-rabon

ETA: Correction. Unstated number of calls from Kelly in jail. The 6 calls were from Briana to her friend that night, which friend didn't try to answer until morning as she disapproved of the company Briana was in that evening. By then, Briana was dead. She was right but must feel so sad now.

 

[zwiebel]

Drugs only kill in cases of an overdose. And that didn't happen here. People kill people. The only one to blame is this 21 yr old (now 22 or 23).

Thank you, while I was trying to guess his age, you were posting it!