Svoboda sentenced for vehicular homicide

Ed Svoboda has been sentenced to between four and 14 years of incarceration and a $5000 fine for aggravated vehicular homicide.

The charges relate to the death of his wife two years ago.

Svoboda pled “no contest” to the charge as part of a plea agreement.

Defense attorney Rob Oldham told the court during the sentencing hearing on Thursday that Svoboda chose to enter this plea not because he refuses to take responsibility for what happened to Kathleen, but because, “He really does not recall all of the details of what happened that day.”

In Svoboda’s mind, his attorney said, what happened was a horrible accident.

As to whether Svoboda feels remorse, Oldham said that, upon his third meeting with his client, he asked him that very question. In response, he stated that Svoboda said, “I cry myself to sleep every night”.

“I still think he has trouble understanding that his wife is gone and he was responsible for her death,” Oldham said.

Svoboda was arrested on September 5, 2021 after three deputies from the Crook County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports that he had driven his truck into the back yard and struck his wife. She was pronounced deceased when the Hulett ambulance arrived on scene.

According to the incident report, deputies learned that Svoboda had driven to the neighbor’s house and asked for a ride. He then got into another person’s car and drove back to his residence.

Shortly after, Kathleen sent multiple text messages to a family member asking for help and saying her leg was broken. The family member found her in the back yard; at that time, she was still alive and talking.

While investigating the scene, deputies determined that the victim had been hit and driven over by a pickup truck hauling a tandem axle trailer with a skid steer on the trailer.

Plea Agreement

Svoboda originally pled not guilty by reason of mental illness to charges of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree and aggravated vehicular homicide.

However, according to the terms and conditions of the plea agreement that was presented to the court in July, Svoboda changed his plea to “no contest” to the charge of vehicular homicide – a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years of incarceration, a $10,000 fine or both.

Svoboda also agreed to withdraw his “not guilty by reason of mental illness” plea and pay costs associated with the prosecution.

In return, the state agreed to dismiss the two additional felony charges against Svoboda, one of which could potentially have seen Svoboda face the death penalty.

The state also agreed not to file any additional charges related to the incident.

The defense and offense also jointly agreed to a sentence of between four and 14 years, with credit for time served since September 5, 2021.

Including a pre-determined sentence in a plea agreement is not something his office does very often, County Attorney Joe Baron said during the hearing. Doing so requires the court to accept not only the amendments to the charge and the new plea, but also the punishment that should be allotted to the criminal.

Speaking to rationale behind the plea agreement, Baron explained that the original charges were filed immediately after the incident and were based on what Svoboda stated in his initial interview. At that time, Svoboda claimed that he had chained his wife to the back of his vehicle and dragged her around on the ground.

However, said Baron, the evidence gathered since that time does not support his statement. Svoboda does not appear to have performed this action.

Baron spoke to the long delays with which this case has been beset, caused by the need for examinations of competence, including at the Wyoming State Hospital. This has been a long process that has caused understandable frustration for the family, he said.

“Obviously, the court has limits on what we can do and we can’t bring Kathleen back,” he said. This, therefore, leaves the question of what to do with the defendant.

“There needs to be some accountability,” Baron said, telling the court that the plea agreement takes into account the need for Svoboda to take responsibility while looking to put an end to the uncertainty of the case.

He also noted that there were differing opinions from the examinations. One said Svoboda was competent to stand trial, said Baron, while the other did not.

Oldham also spoke on behalf of his client to defend the choice of sentence, which he said might seem low with the original charges still “looming” in the back of people’s minds. However, “We spent a lot of time going back and forth,” he said, and the charges are the result of that compromise.

Oldham also made note of the fact that Svoboda will only become eligible for consideration for parole after four years – that does not mean he will get it. The statistics for first-time success in parole hearings in Wyoming is lower than you might think, he said.

Thanks to his current medications, Oldham described Svoboda as “a different man” than the one who entered the county jail after the incident, following which he had a fractious first few days as an inmate.

Judge’s Decision

Once both sides had made their arguments, Judge James Michael Causey spoke to the weight of the decision that rested in his hands.

The court must weigh a number of factors, he said, including the crime and its circumstances, the character of the criminal and the purposes of sentencing, which include rehabilitation, punishment, deterrence and protection of the public.

In this case, he said, “We have considered everything that we can possibly consider and this is not an easy decision”.

He noted that one common thread connects all those who come before him accused of such crimes.

“You only got here through pain,” he said.

In this case, the pain was the death of a person who was well-loved.

Of all the information Judge Causey considered, he said that one thing stands out: “The question of whether or not we have spared victims the ordeal of a trial.”

This, he said, “weighs quite heavily”, especially after all this time.

For this reason, Judge Causey accepted the plea agreement and applied the agreed-upon sentence of four to 14 years. He also found there would be “some merit” to including a $5000 fine in the sentence.

In his closing statement, Judge Causey directed the victims of this crime to approach the Wyoming Board of Parole directly for any future hearings associated with Svoboda’s case. He dismissed the court with a final word to Kathleen’s family members: “We wish you as much peace as we possibly can”.