Published: October 15, 2009 11:20 pm      

Evaluation ordered for VanWinkle in rape case

Jaclyn Dawn VanWinkle will be evaluated for her competency to stand trial after a request Thursday afternoon by her attorney.

VanWinkle’s lawyer, Richmond attorney Mike Eubanks, asked Madison Circuit Judge Jean C. Logue to order an evaluation for VanWinkle during a pretrial conference on third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy, third-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and first-degree sexual abuse charges.

The charges stem from an alleged sexual relationship between VanWinkle and a 15-year-old boy in which she allegedly had sex with the boy, performed oral sex on him and gave him alcohol.

VanWinkle told Richmond police during an interview following her June 30 arrest that she did have sex with the boy once and gave him alcohol she had purchased for him, but denied the boy’s allegations that they had sex twice and that she had performed oral sex on him twice.

Doctors from the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange will perform the observation and determine if VanWinkle is competent to stand trial. Logue scheduled a Dec. 10 pretrial conference to allow attorneys to discuss the evaluation.

If convicted, VanWinkle could receive up to five years in prison on each of the rape, sodomy and sexual abuse charges and up to 12 months in jail on the unlawful transaction charge.

She already was on probation for two years following a guilty plea to reckless abuse or neglect of an adult in connection with her role in the abuse of a Madison Manor resident while working at the facility as a nurse’s aide.

That plea was part of an agreement with state prosecutors that requires her to cooperate with their investigation, and her probation included the condition that she commit no additional offenses.



Endangerment plea

A McKee man entered a guilty plea to a single first-degree wanton endangerment charge for brandishing a firearm at a Bradbury Pointe resident.

Farris Dwayne VanWinkle, 48, entered the plea in exchange for dismissal of a persistent felony offender charge and a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and prosecutors recommended a five-year prison sentence.

VanWinkle was arrested July 29 after the resident of a home in the 100 block of Bradbury Pointe reported he pointed a .38-caliber revolver at her.

He allegedly was drunk at the time, and had parked in a nearby driveway and staggered into the home’s front yard, the resident told police. VanWinkle produced the firearm after the woman asked him to leave.

He was indicted in late August on the charges, and is free on bond. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 10.



Trafficking plea

A Richmond woman, arrested by police for drug trafficking after an indictment against her was unsealed by the court, pleaded guilty and told Logue she had sold prescription pills to an undercover officer.

Linda C. Johnson, 52, of Westover Avenue, had been arrested Sept. 16 after a second-degree trafficking in controlled substances indictment against her was unsealed.

Johnson entered a plea and received a recommended one-year sentence on the charge as part of an agreement with prosecutors, and told Logue she sold prescription Lortab pills to an undercover Richmond police officer.

“I didn’t know I was selling to an undercover cop,” Johnson told Logue while choking back tears.

Final sentencing is scheduled in the case for Nov. 12.



Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@richmondregister.com or at 624-6694.