Husband-killer goes to halfway house
Indigo Ace
Husband-killer goes to halfway house
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer
A Pueblo woman who hired two men to kill her husband was sent to the
Arapahoe County Residential Center on Friday after serving nearly 18
years in prison, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Donna Yaklich was sentenced to 40 years in prison after her husband,
Dennis Yak lich, a Pueblo police officer, was gunned down in the
driveway of his home in 1985.
Donna Yaklich maintained that her husband was abusive and she acted in
self-defense. She was admitted to DOC custody on Aug. 9, 1988.
The Arapahoe Community Corrections Board approved Yaklich's transfer
in October. She is to meet the parole board again in July. The
community corrections board did not publicly state the reasons for
releasing Yaklich to a halfway house, but chairman Thomas Vockrodt
said the reopening of an investigation into the death of Dennis Yak
lich's first wife, Barbara Yaklich, played no part in their decision.
In September, Pueblo County Sheriff Dan Corsentino reopened an
investigation into the 1977 death after 9News reported the original
medical examiner might have missed evidence of a murder.
The investigation, according to Pueblo sheriff's spokesman Steve
Bryant, is in the finishing stages.
"It's still ongoing but it's in the concluding process and Sheriff
Corsentino expects some sort of conclusion by the middle of February,"
Bryant said.
In 1977, hospital pathologist Dr. Neill McGrath, who has since died,
ruled that Barbara Yaklich died of natural causes.
Arapahoe County chief coroner Dr. Michael Doberson and Denver County
chief coroner Dr. Tom Henry have reviewed the original report and said
blunt-force trauma to the abdomen is a more likely cause of death.
Donna Yaklich claimed during her murder trial that Dennis Yaklich had
abused her. Her story was featured in a 1994 made-for-TV movie
starring Jaclyn Smith.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or
eemery;@denverpost.com.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3474718
--
Anne
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
Michael Snyder
"Indigo Ace" <indi...@seesignature.com> wrote in message
news:43e5e153...@news.prodigy.net...
> From the Denver Post--
>
> Husband-killer goes to halfway house
> By Erin Emery
> Denver Post Staff Writer
>
> A Pueblo woman who hired two men to kill her husband was sent to the
> Arapahoe County Residential Center on Friday after serving nearly 18
> years in prison, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.
>
> Donna Yaklich was sentenced to 40 years in prison after her husband,
> Dennis Yak lich, a Pueblo police officer, was gunned down in the
> driveway of his home in 1985.
>
> Donna Yaklich maintained that her husband was abusive and she acted in
> self-defense. She was admitted to DOC custody on Aug. 9, 1988.
Right -- and she couldn't just leave.
She had no choice but to kill him.
This woman's sentence was almost seven times the average
sentence for a woman who kills her husband -- probably because
her husband was a police officer.
> Donna Yaklich claimed during her murder trial that Dennis Yaklich had
> abused her. Her story was featured in a 1994 made-for-TV movie
> starring Jaclyn Smith.
What was it called? "The Burning Bed, Take 2,357"?
vivisectrix
>This woman's sentence was almost seven times the average sentence for a
>woman who kills her husband -- probably because her husband was a police
>officer.
I suspect the fact that she hired killers to do the job for her had
something to do with the length of her sentence too. If she'd done it
herself, she might have gotten those numbers reduced a bit, although not
as much as another woman who kills a non-cop spouse.
Vivi
--
I wanna play with a pathetic suicidal masochist.
Michael Snyder
"vivisectrix" <vivis...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:43e50304....@news.gci.net...
> Snyder:
>
> >This woman's sentence was almost seven times the average sentence for a
> >woman who kills her husband -- probably because her husband was a police
> >officer.
>
> I suspect the fact that she hired killers to do the job for her had
> something to do with the length of her sentence too. If she'd done it
> herself, she might have gotten those numbers reduced a bit, although not
> as much as another woman who kills a non-cop spouse.
Yeah, you're right. Hiring killers to do the job was one of the
factors that I found could earn a woman the death penalty.
vivisectrix
BTW, in re your comment about how she should have left him rather than
killed him, I'd like to say that having grown up with an ultra-controlling
and borderline psychotic abuser who had a penchant for playing with
weapons, I don't have a problem with the idea that some victims of abuse
can only escape through murder. My only problem with the issue is the
erroneous cultural belief that only women and children could possibly be
so terrorized by their (male) abuser that they'd have good reason to
believe their only hope is to kill the abuser. Right off the top of my
head, I remember a case where a woman (doctor) was so abusive that she
ultimately murdered two of her children in order to "get even" with her
estranged spouse (also a doctor, I believe), whom she had been
systematically poisoning for quite some time. He should have killed her.
Leaving her obviously wasn't safe, and if he'd killed her, all of their
children would still be alive, and he would not be crippled.
Assuming the innuendos in this article are factual, this particular woman
apparently had good reason to believe that if he survived, she was doomed.
Therefor, killing him from behind (in this case by hiring assassins to do
the job) is still self-defense.
Michael Snyder
> Snyder:
>
> BTW, in re your comment about how she should have left him rather than
> killed him, I'd like to say that having grown up with an ultra-controlling
> and borderline psychotic abuser who had a penchant for playing with
> weapons, I don't have a problem with the idea that some victims of abuse
> can only escape through murder.
I'll grant that *POSSIBILITY*. But we have no reason to believe
that it's true in this case. The problem is that that idea gets thrown
out every time a woman kills her husband -- and we usually don't
even bother to follow up and see whether it's the case.
> My only problem with the issue is the
> erroneous cultural belief that only women and children could possibly be
> so terrorized by their (male) abuser that they'd have good reason to
> believe their only hope is to kill the abuser.
My problem is that it's the automatic knee-jerk assumption
whenever a woman kills her husband or lover, or for that
matter, father, brother, uncle...
> Right off the top of my
> head, I remember a case where a woman (doctor) was so abusive that she
> ultimately murdered two of her children in order to "get even" with her
> estranged spouse (also a doctor, I believe), whom she had been
> systematically poisoning for quite some time. He should have killed her.
No. He should have taken the kids and left.
Killing is always the last resort.
> Leaving her obviously wasn't safe, and if he'd killed her, all of their
> children would still be alive, and he would not be crippled.
No, but he would belong in jail. It's not up to a civilian
to decide that "leaving her isn't safe". We have a phrase
for that -- it's called "taking the law into your own hands",
and it's not acceptable.
> Assuming the innuendos in this article are factual, this particular woman
> apparently had good reason to believe that if he survived, she was doomed.
NEVER assume that the innuendos in an article are factual,
especially if it is about a woman killing her husband or
male family member. Such articles almost ALWAYS imply
that the male victim was to blame, and the woman perp was
in fact a victim.