Woman sentenced to 5 years

By CARRIE KIRSCHNER
The Independent

CATLETTSBURG August 28, 2008 09:04 pm

— A Westwood woman charged with abuse for allowing her 2-year-old twins to ingest crack cocaine was formally sentenced to five years in prison Thursday.
Cheri L. Delwader, 40, plead guilty to second-degree criminal abuse, a Class D felony, in July. Under new state sentencing guidelines, Delwader could be eligible for parole after just 9 months in jail.
Class D felony’s carry sentences of one to five years in prison. New state guidelines allow just fifteen percent of a sentence to be served before parole can be granted, inmates are given credit for time already served and can shave off additional time by earning statutory “good time” while incarcerated.
Delawder has been incarcerated at the Boyd County Detention Center since being arrested in mid-February, meaning she could be eligible for parole before the end of the year.
Boyd County Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said he has no intention of letting that happen.
“I am drafting a letter to the parole board requesting them to not to consider any form of early release,” he said Thursday afternoon, just hours after Delwader was formally sentenced by Boyd District Judge Mark I. Rosen. “The letter will go out tomorrow to the parole board.”
“I would be shocked if they don’t require her to serve a substantial part of that sentence due to the nature and severity of the crime,” Justice said. “These two children are lucky, very fortunate, that they didn’t have serious or fatal incidents.”
Delwader was indicted by a Boyd County grand jury for abusing her twin son and daughter “by smoking crack cocaine in close proximity of the children, exposing them to ingestion of crack cocaine, thereby causing the children to test positive to high levels of cocaine.”
The abuse was brought to light in December when Delwader called Catlettsburg police to her home after discovering her 44-year-old boyfriend, Kenneth Henderson, was not breathing.
Henderson was pronounced dead at the home in the 1200 block of Oak Street and a subsequent search of the home revealed five separate bags of marijuana, a loaded handgun and paraphernalia commonly used to smoke crack, Justice said.
The twins were also found in the home and were promptly placed in the custody of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Hair follicle tests on the twins revealed they both had high levels of cocaine in their systems and the drug would have had to be ingested for such levels to be found in hair samples.
The children are now being cared for by relatives, Justice said.
CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reached at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.