Alison Dirr





WAUSAU -- The judge in a murder-for-hire sentencing hearing Tuesday struggled to find a sentence that would balance time behind bars with the rehabilitative needs of a defendant who herself was the victim of a crime when she was raped as a child.

On one hand, Vilas County Circuit Court Judge Neal A. Nielsen said, Jessica Strom offered cash and sex to a man whom she asked to kill her fiance and then dispose of his body. Such a serious crime demanded that she spend time behind bars as both a punishment and a deterrent to others, Nielsen said.

On the other hand, Strom herself entered an obviously rocky relationship with the victim, a local attorney who is not being named as the victim of a violent crime, with a traumatic past that will require psychiatric care to address — care that is more readily available in the community than in prison.

"I think there have been a number of events in your life that have led to this situation and created the person you are, not least of which was the fact that you were sexually assaulted as a child," Nielsen said, addressing Strom before sentencing her in Marathon County Circuit Court.

In the end, Nielsen determined that Strom deserved less than the maximum 12 1/2 years in the Wisconsin Prison System that she faced on a charge of solicitation of first-degree intentional homicide. He ordered the 33-year-old to spend 3 1/2 years in prison as punishment, followed by four years of extended supervision. She was forbidden to have any contact with her former fiance.

"So many other women who find themselves in incarceration have a similar constellation in their lives that have brought them to this," he said.

Tuesday's wide-ranging hearing drew national media attention and revolved around the prosecution's contention that Strom genuinely wanted to have her fiance killed and Strom's explanation that she never really intended her drunken rambling about homicide to be taken seriously.

Much of Tuesday's testimony and argument centered around what was characterized by both sides as an toxic, drawn-out relationship between Strom and her victim. Testimony also focused on previous trauma in Strom's life and the well-being of her children should she go to prison.

She was charged in March after an informer called police and said Strom approached him with what she called a "business proposal," according to court documents. When the two met in Wausau, she asked him how much money it would take for him to kill her boyfriend and then fly his body to another location and dump it, the man told police.

She offered the man $1,000 and sex as payment, according to court documents.

Langlade County District Attorney Ralph Uttke, a special prosecutor assigned to the case, said during Tuesday's sentencing that he was concerned about what could have happened had Strom approached someone else with the proposition — someone who might have taken her up on the offer or thought she was just "blowing off steam" and not contacted the police.

"There is no more serious crime than killing someone," Uttke said. "The next-most-serious (crime) is hiring someone to do that."

Uttke recommended 7 1/2 years in prison and five years of extended supervision for Strom, which would both provide punishment and time for her to get the help she needs.

More than 30 people filled the courtroom to watch the proceedings, including Strom's father, sister and friends. Some wept quietly during the proceedings and there was a collective gasp when Nielsen delivered the sentence. Strom also began crying when the prison term was handed down.

In about 30 minutes of comments to the court before she was sentenced, Strom described her murder plot as "drunken, stupid, silly venting" and said she was joking when she offered the informer sex and cash for the killing.

"I had nothing to gain by (the victim's) death," she said. "Only everything to lose."

But Uttke, after summarizing the events leading up to her arrest, including a plan for the killing, said it did not seem like she was just making a joke.

Nielsen agreed, saying he did not "particularly believe" that she was kidding when she proposed the plot.

Defense Attorney James Runyon asked that Strom be placed in the Lincoln County Jail and be eligible for work release, rather than prison. He called Strom's sister, two friends and Marathon County Sheriff's Department Chaplain Ray Slatton, to testify about Strom's character. All four said she was a good mother who was not a threat to the public or the victim.

Strom's sister, Jill Groshek, 29, of Merrill said her sister, is "very nurturing, very protective" of her children.

Nielsen ended the sentencing by saying that he hoped that with help, Strom would be able to lead a productive life in the community.

After the hearing, Steve Strom of Merrill said he thought his daughter, whom he characterized as "something of an actress," was just playing around with the informant and did not really mean to hurt anyone.

Her sister, Groshek, said while walking out with her father that the family was shocked by the case.

"She's not a monster," Groshek said.

Alison Dirr can be reached at 715-845-0658. Find her on Twitter as @AlisonDirr