Appeal may delay prison for Killpack

PROVO — There's a possibility that the Springville woman sentenced to prison for the death of her 4-year-old adopted daughter won't have to begin serving her sentence Friday morning as ordered by the court, her defense attorney said.

Attorney Mike Esplin on Monday said he planned to immediately file a notice of appeal with the 4th District Court and petition the state appellate court to hear the case for "many issues raised in the course of (court) proceedings" against Jennete Killpack.

Killpack, 30, was found guilty of child abuse homicide on Oct. 11 and sentenced Friday by Judge Claudia Laycock to serve one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. Laycock stayed that sentence for one week because Killpack's mother-in-law had just died.

Killpack was ordered to report to the Utah County Jail by 9 a.m. Friday to be transported to prison. Esplin hopes that won't happen.

"I intend to request that this be heard before she reports (to prison)," he said, "because if the court grants the petition to stay (the sentence), there's no reason to have her booked into prison and have her come back down (for a hearing)."

Esplin would not speculate on the chances of being granted an immediate hearing, saying only that "it's a possibility" but "time is not in our favor."

Killpack was found guilty of the second-degree felony following a trial that lasted 3 1/2 weeks and saw her husband, Richard, 38, acquitted.

During the trial, prosecutors said Killpack forced her adopted daughter Cassandra to drink about a gallon of water as punishment for taking a sibling's drink on the night of June 9, 2002. The punishment led to the girl's death by water intoxication — a condition that causes the brain to swell and the body's sodium level to drop to a fatal level, prosecutors said.

The Killpacks said they only gave the girl about 20 ounces of water and that they do not know how she died.

After Friday's sentencing, Esplin said there were "many issues" of the court proceedings that he planned to address in an appeal. Chief among them, he said, was the standard of proof required by state prosecutors.

"The state's position is that all they have to prove in a child homicide case is that the defendants are reckless in that they knew or should have known that their conduct would likely result in serious bodily injury," Esplin said.

The defense attorney said state prosecutors should have had to prove that such conduct would not only cause bodily injury but that it would cause death.