INTERLUDE

By the time their second trial begins, Ivy and Janeth are barely speaking. Again, the trial lasts a little over a month. This time the jury finds both women guilty. Each is sentenced to a longer term of incarceration than she would have faced if they’d accepted the plea deal. Janeth’s sentence is forty years to life, and Ivy, who held out believing she would walk, is sentenced to sixty years to life. I’m not sure why there’s a difference. Is it because Janeth is younger? Because Ivy was on parole?

As usual, Elie explains everything.

Janeth receives an “aggregate indeterminate” term in state prison of forty years to life. “Aggregate” means that her sentences are combined: fifteen years to life for second-degree murder, plus twenty years for the firearm-use enhancement, and a concurrent term of life for an attempted premeditated murder. However, her sentence is also indeterminate because it carries the hope that prison might rehabilitate her. If Janeth is determined to be rehabilitated, she will be paroled closer to (but not less than) her minimum term of forty years. In other words, the one thing Janeth can hold on to is the idea that she might get out in forty years.

Ivy also receives an aggregate, indeterminate sentence totaling sixty years to life. Out the gate she receives more time because when the crime took place, she was already on parole for a serious felony that brought with it one strike. This automatically doubles her sentence for the homicide. Ivy, too, is found guilty of second-degree murder, which ordinarily carries a sentence of fifteen years to life, but Ivy gets thirty years. She also receives twenty-five years to life for a firearm-use enhancement and five years for a previous felony conviction. Her chances on appeal are very weak, but, luckily, she will be able to obtain a new lawyer to help with her appeal.

Ivy cries and keeps saying, “I should’ve taken the deal. Now I’m never going to see my son.” Strangely enough, Janeth has more faith, telling Adela, “I’m gonna to be free one day. It might be a minute, but I’m gonna to get out eventually.” Her attorney, who is still devotedly working for Janeth, promises they’ll file an appeal and immediately begins looking for an expert to assist her.

A few days later, Janeth renews her plea that Adela adopt Angelina. At this point, Adela knows that DCFS is involved, and she warns Janeth that the paternal grandmother, Myra, will put up a fight. “She knew I was right, so she asked me to reach out to Myra and help her to keep a relationship with Angelina.”

Ivy and Janeth are both sent to Chowchilla state prison. Honoring Janeth’s wishes, Adela starts to build a relationship with Myra. Eventually that relationship becomes so strong that Myra calls Adela for help finding an attorney to represent her youngest son, Alberto, when he’s arrested. Adela always asks how Angelina is, and Myra says she’s “doing good, growing up strong,” adding, “I can’t take her up to Chowchilla; it’s too far for me. Angelina talks to Janeth on the phone. She knows her mom is in prison. And she knows one day she’s coming home.”

Ivy struggles to maintain a relationship with her son, Jessie, fearing she’ll be gone a long time and will have to let go. She tells Adela, “It will be like I’m dead. He’ll never really know me.” Ivy’s trauma has deepened, but Janeth still feels an unshakeable sense of hope.