HOPES DASHED--YOLANDA SENTENCE UPHELD

HELL, MAY 14- I write to update you on the latest on this story. Goliath, himself,

is far to aggrieved to respond.

(Yalanda and husband enter Court for trial) Photo by C.E. Branham

Far be it for me, a dead gunfighter and lawyer to judge...(although that's just what I am going to

do) but it seemed to me that if some Bad Boy on a motorcycle is being rude and obstreperous on

the common thorough fare, and then is so Bold as to park his iron horse, dismount and approach you in a threatening manner.... he was pretty much responsible for whatever happened. Just because he gets the bad end of the deal....now he is complaining. I, J.W. Hardin, was a racist in life, but, here in hell, its a little harder to tell the significant difference race makes in a person. But it's not tough to see what role it plays in situations. I can't help but imagine

how this would have played out if it had been a daffy white middle class woman in her SUV and

the motorcycle rider was a Black, known criminal, previously involved in a homicide marching up to her vehicle after a road rage taunting on his bike. Hmmm.

Anyway, here's the story by Matt Thacker:

Yalanda Parrish’s conviction, sentence upheld

February 2013 earliest release date from Department of Correction

By MATT THACKERMatt.Thacker@newsandtribune.com

JEFFERSONVILLE — The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence of road-rage shooter Yalanda Parrish in a 3-0 decision published Friday.

A jury in Clark County Circuit Court convicted Parrish of class B felony aggravated battery in July, and Judge Dan Moore sentenced her to 10 years in prison with the final three years to be served on work release.

Parrish, 41, shot 52-year-old Wesley Mosier once in the chest as he approached her vehicle while stopped at a traffic light at 10th Street and Allison Lane in Jeffersonville. Witnesses gave varying testimonies about whether Parrish was following Mosier too closely or Mosier was driving erratically and cutting off Parrish on his motorcycle.

Mosier claimed he only wanted to ask if he had done something wrong, while Parrish said Mosier tried to attack her and she was acting in self-defense

Parrish’s 15-year-old son was arrested for kicking and hitting Mosier after he was shot and on the ground.

Yalanda Parrish appealed her conviction on the grounds that her request for a mistrial was denied. Moore ruled prosecutors could not mention allegations that Parrish’s son attacked Mosier because that might prejudice the jury.

Mosier mentioned during his testimony that her son pulled his hair and kicked him, and Moore admonished the jury to ignore those statements. The Court of Appeals found that one statement — taking into consideration that 15 witnesses were called — did not have a persuasive effect on the jury.

In arguing the sentence was too long, Yalanda Parrish’s appeal stated that the judge should not have used matters outside the court in sentencing.

The Court of Appeals found that she waived appellate review on that matter because she never objected when Moore said at the sentencing hearing that he went to the scene of the crime and counted the number of stops Yalanda Parrish could have turned off on 10th Street between Sportsman Drive and Allison Lane to avoid the conflict.

“Therefore, although trial court judges are strongly discouraged from undertaking their own investigations and visiting crime scenes, the information that the trial court judge in this case received as a result of his visits had already been presented to the jury, and we find no error,” the Court of Appeals ruled.

The appeal further stated the court did not consider that she was provoked by Mosier and that there was substantial grounds to excuse or justify the crime. The court found that Yalanda Parrish knew Mosier was unarmed and began to retreat when he saw her gun.

Yalanda Parrish’s earliest release date from the Department of Correction is February 2013.