The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed the sentencing imposed on Donna M. Adams as set by Marshall County Superior Court I Judge Robert Bowen.
On appeal, Adams raised only one issue, namely, whether her sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and her character.
The case is from a 2014 incident when Adams was staying at the Economy Inn with her then-boyfriend, Donald Irwin Jr. and he allegedly told Adams to have oral sex with a young female in front of him or he would kill both of them so she did.
About a year later the child reported the incident to a family member and Adams was charged on August 13, 2015 for Child Molesting as a Level 1 felony. On March 30, 2016 Adams submitted a plea agreement under which she pled guilty as charged and her maximum sentence was capped at 30 years.
Judge Bowen said in open court at the sentencing that he was going at 25 years, somewhere between the minimum sentence and the advisory sentence because of the fact that Adams had a clear criminal record and because she indicated she was under duress, by a threat of violence when the incident occurred.
The Court of Appeals stated that Indiana’s flexible sentencing scheme allows trial courts to tailor an appropriate sentence to the circumstances presented. In reviewing the case the Court of Appeals determined the nature of the offense was appropriate and as for her character they commented that she had failed to report a child molestation she had seen her ex-boyfriend have with the same child and did nothing to assist the young child after the incident had happened. The Court of Appeals found the sentence imposed by Judge Bowen was not inappropriate.
Donna Adams is currently lodged in the Rockville Correctional Facility and has an earliest possible release date of May 2034 according to the Indiana Department of Corrections.
