Oct 2, 2008 10:08 am US/Central
Ex-Model Goes Free After Serving Time For Crash
Jeanette Sliwinski Killed 3 People In Suicide Attempt
LINCOLN, Ill. (STNG) ―
A 25-year-old former model convicted of killing three men during a botched suicide attempt in 2005 was released Thursday.
Jeanette Sliwinski was paroled early Thursday morning and released from Lincoln Correctional Center after she was transferred from Dwight Correctional Center, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said.
The location and time of Sliwinski's release has been kept quiet until Thursday because the department has recently received a threat against her safety, Schnapp said. That threat is under investigation.
Sliwinski was found guilty in October 2007 of killing three musicians when she rammed her car into theirs at a Skokie intersection on July 14, 2005. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder. But on Oct. 26, 2007, Judge Garritt Howard found her guilty of reckless homicide, a lesser charge.
She was sentenced to eight years in prison last year, but has been in custody since July 1, 2005, Schnapp said. The law requires Sliwinski to serve only half her sentence.
At her sentencing last year, Scott Meis, 27, the younger brother of victim Douglas Meis, said, "It's just kind of ridiculous. Someone's going to walk away free after possibly two years -- a year and a half, two years -- in return for three innocent lives. Is that justice?"
As she was leaving that sentencing hearing, Rebecca Crawford, the widow of victim John Glick, 35, said, "We're all very distraught." Michael Dahlquist, 39, was also killed in the crash.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2008. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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