LAFAYETTE, IN — Grace Lescalleet should be at the beginning of a three-year in-home detention sentence for the death of her 3-year-old brother in a reckless car accident. Instead, she’s sitting in jail.
Lescalleet, who was sentenced April 13, refused to sign the community correction participant handbook on three separate occasions since her sentencing. Prosecutors on May 8 filed a petition to execute community corrections sentence in custody, and a warrant was issued May 8 for her arrest.
On May 4, Lescalleet, who is now 29, wrote a letter to Special Judge Randy Williams saying, among other things, that the community correction participant handbook addresses the expectations for home detention only five times in the 36-page booklet, and she objected to agreeing to rules that did not pertain to her.
Lescalleet also objected that community correction rules ban her from being within 1,000 feet of her victims. But her brother, Wyatt Mohr, was the victim. Her mother and stepfather are also listed as victims, Lescalleet wrote, implying she would be in violation if she saw them and lived at home.
Officers arrested and jailed Lescalleet on Monday.
Lescalleet’s attorney on May 8 also filed a motion asking the court to postpone her sentence pending the outcome of her appeal.
A hearing is scheduled for May 15 on both the prosecutor’s motion and Lescalleet’s motion, according to the court docket.
Lescalleet was convicted of reckless homicide after a January bench trial. She was acquitted of neglect of a dependent resulting in death.
About 9:30 a.m. Sept. 21, 2021, Lescalleet was driving northwest on Jackson Highway with Wyatt properly restrained and sitting in the back seat behind her.
Lescalleet failed to make a curve in the road and was traveling 112 mph. Testimony was that the car’s “black box” indicated that Lescalleet’s foot pressure on the accelerator pedal did not change after her car left the road, ran into a ditch and struck a fence at several locations.
Wyatt was killed by one of the fence railings that smashed into the car’s passenger compartment. Lescalleet’s car ramped off a driveway, hitting a pine tree several feet above the ground.
Lescalleet was critically injured in the crash and pinned in the wreckage. She suffers from traumatic brain injuries from the accident, according to Lescalleet and court hearings. Prosecutors charged Lescalleet in January 2024.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Sister sentenced for child’s death refuses to sign rules, is back in jail
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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