Sentencing Jennifer

Inmate Jennifer McElroy, 27, was dressed in red, arms shackled. Her long, brown hair was neatly pulled from her round face. Her shoulders shook Thursday morning as she told Judge James Hardesty that she hadn’t planned to help her boyfriend, Milton “David” Plummer, break out of the Washoe County Jail a year ago.

“He talked about [escaping], but it wasn’t real to me,” McElroy said. “I had planned to go to his sentencing. The day I went I drove to the jail and parked outside, I went there to pray. I told him that. It wasn’t real to me. I did not know it was going to happen until I saw him run up to the car. … I loved him. He was, he is my baby’s father. It was stupid. I know it was stupid.”

She sobbed openly.

“I wanted my family back. I’m sorry.”

Hardesty looked at photographs of McElroy’s two preschoolers, Justin and Joey. He read letters from McElroy’s mother, stepfather and cousin, acknowledging that McElroy had made bad choices but pleading for leniency.

“She has been a joy in my life,” wrote Patricia Fellows, McElroy’s mother who lives at Belli Ranch. “She is intelligent, talented, outgoing and has the potential to be a productive good citizen. Jennifer has two beautiful children she adores, and [she] desires to raise them to be respectful young men.”

“She has always been a good Christian,” wrote Gayle Scarbrough, a cousin. “She has never had a drinking or drug problem. She has never been in trouble with the law. She was a good student … I hope this will help you to see the other side of Jennifer. Up until three years ago, her life was so different.”

Hardesty told McElroy he was disappointed over her failure to take responsibility for her decisions.

“What I’ve heard today are the same kinds of words and explanations,” he said. “ ‘It’s someone else’s fault.’ I can’t tell you what to do with your future. But I can’t ignore your criminal conduct.”

He spoke of the need to send a “clear message” to other inmates that individuals participating in escape attempts will be made to pay.

He sentenced McElroy to 90 months in prison, with parole eligibility after 36 months. The sentence will run concurrent with the two- to five-year sentence that she’s now serving after pleading guilty to one count of robbery. Hardesty gave McElroy zero credit for time served.

During her sentencing for that crime, McElroy had asked Hardesty to change her plea. She said she had felt pressured into signing the plea just to get out of jail and be with her children.

“One of the many disappointing things about this case and about you that I’ve had is when you made the request to change your plea,” Hardesty said. “I told you then that the court does not sit up here as a potted plant. I am interested in people’s lives and issues. And while I was telling you that, you were plotting this scheme to get out of jail.”

In the summer of 2001, McElroy’s boyfriend Plummer was booked into the Washoe County Jail on several charges: first degree kidnapping, armed robbery, two counts of burglary with the use of a deadly weapon, ex-felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. Plummer was on parole in California at the time he was picked up in Reno. It was illegal for him to be out of state without permission.

McElroy was booked into jail for allegedly serving as Plummer’s partner in crime.

In later calls to the RN&R and other area media, McElroy insisted that Plummer was being set up for most of the charges—that the police were trying to unload several unsolved robberies of fast food restaurants on her man. Her apartment was searched without a warrant, she said. Police promised not to arrest her, then arrested her, she said. She had no criminal record. She had no money.

She said that she hadn’t wanted to accept any of the district attorney’s deals. Finally, because she wanted to get out of jail and be with her sons, she pleaded guilty to one count of robbery, with the stipulation that she wouldn’t testify against Plummer. She claimed that the attorneys were writing things on the paper after she signed it.

“I didn’t know I was signing away my rights,” she told the RN&R.

At 2 a.m., Aug. 2, 2002, Milton David Plummer used a piece of material broken from the desk in his cell to break a window. He lowered himself out the window with a bed sheet, climbed a light pole and ran across a single story structure. He ran out an open gate and up the road to where McElroy was parked.

The two left town in a Kia. A friend of Plummer’s had given McElroy the keys to the car, but six hours later, it was reported stolen. A manhunt ensued. McElroy called her family from the road. Her stepfather used the media to send a message to the woman.

“We love you and want you to come home,” said Steve Fellows. “Dave, please end this peacefully.”

The FBI tracked the couple into California. Police officers in San Leandro, Calif., spotted the two driving the stolen car on Aug. 7 and attempted to stop them. McElroy was arrested. Plummer got away but was arrested within a few hours at a store in San Leandro.

McElroy’s two sons are in foster care. She’s facing the possibility of a parental rights termination, though her family has pledged to fight for her kids. Hardesty promised—though it’s outside his jurisdiction—he would put in a word for McElroy to retain her rights if at all possible within the law.

"[The court] will bend over backward if they think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” says John Kadlic, McElroy’s attorney for the jailbreak charges. Kadlic was paid $500 to represent McElroy. He’s already put in far more hours than he should have, given the rate he charges for private practice, said McElroy’s mother.

McElroy said she desperately misses her kids.

“I haven’t slept one night away from them without crying,” she said. “I need to be there for them. They’re little. I wish I could have seen ahead of time …”

The prosecuting attorney said he saw no evidence that McElroy has learned to take responsibility for her actions. And while it’s sad that a mother should be separated from her kids, he noted that she left her boys voluntarily in order to help her boyfriend escape.

“She abandoned her kids for Mr. Plummer. She stole a car and left the state. Where were her kids then? Apparently, love for her children wasn’t strong enough to keep her from busting Plummer out of jail. It was quite a heist she pulled off.”

McElroy told Hardesty that, in fact, she was thinking of her kids when she drove off in the car with Plummer.

“I was trying to keep my family together,” she said. “About 99 percent of the kids in prison went there because they didn’t have a father. I didn’t want my sons to grow up without a father.

“At the time, I thought what I was doing was right. I argued with my pastor about it. There were so many injustices with the robbery charges. I contacted the ACLU and the papers. I tried to get some help. … When nobody would listen, I took it upon myself.”

She doesn’t do well in jail. There are many things that set inmates up for persecution by other inmates and even guards. One is not having any money. Another is being a Christian. And survival often depends on “having a criminal mentality,” McElroy said Monday during her last half-hour of visiting time at the Washoe County Jail. McElroy said she’s unfortunate in all three categories.

“I was having a hard time dealing with seven more months on this robbery sentence,” she said Monday. “But I’d do the 18 months and shut up—even if it is bullshit.”

She said she thought she’d be shipped to Southern Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility on Thursday. Her mother, Patty Fellows, had come for one last visit in Reno before her daughter is sent to prison in Las Vegas.

Since Hardesty gave McElroy no credit for time served, she won’t be eligible for parole in three years. She thinks this is a mistake and hopes that her attorney is filing a motion to give her credit for time she’s served.

If it hadn’t been for the escape attempt, she’d likely have received probation for the one count of robbery, since she had no prior record. When she was sentenced for that crime, the judge was making sure she knew she was paying for the escape attempt.

“It’s double jeopardy,” she said. “I shouldn’t have gone to prison for the robbery at all. I’ve been paying for the escape all this time.”

She spoke of several inmates she’s met in jail and many have told her they feel they’ve also been strong-armed into signing pleas—just to get their cases over with.

“In here, it’s not innocent until proven guilty,” McElroy said. “It’s guilty until you can pay someone to defend your rights.”

A voice announced that visiting time was up. McElroy apologized to her mom for what she’d put her through and waved as she walked away down the hall.

Fellows cried as she left the visiting area. She’s been visiting twice a week for as long as it’s been allowed, but she won’t be able to make the trip to Las Vegas very often.

“I hate the system," she said. "I hate what my daughter has done. And I hate what the system has done to her."