April Wilkens will remain in prison after Tulsa County District Judge David Guten on Thursday denied her request to be resentenced under the Oklahoma Survivors' Act.
The law allows survivors of domestic abuse who commit violence against their abusers to seek resentencing. Wilkens was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend, Terry Carlton, 27 years ago.
“There’s no doubt that she endured domestic violence at the hands of Terry Carlton,” Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said after the hearing. “I don’t think anybody’s disputing that.”
However, Kunzweiler and Assistant Tulsa County District Attorney Meghan Hilborn argued that Wilkens’ history of methamphetamine use and mental illness, not the emotional, physical and sexual abuse she endured, were the primary causes behind the shooting.
Taxpayer Cost
Kunzweiler and Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hilborn presented expert testimony from Dr. Jarrod Steffan, a Wichita-based forensic psychologist.
According to court testimony, the district attorney’s office paid Steffan more than $11,000 for an evaluation report of Wilkens and in-court testimony.
Steffan told the court that while he was hired by the Tulsa County DA, his assessments are impartial and sometimes contradict the arguments of the party that retains him.
Kunzweiler said the case came with significant costs for the district attorney’s office.
“It became a very expensive proposition,” he said. “I had to hire at the last moment, after a good, long year worth of litigation, an expert from another jurisdiction.”
Kunzweiler also criticized the Oklahoma Survivors' Act for lacking funding to support prosecution efforts.
“They just said, ‘Here’s an unfunded mandate,’” Kunzweiler said of state lawmakers. “We’re going to have hearings on this matter, and you just do with it according to the staffing you already have.”
Human Cost
Wilkens’ attorney, Colleen McCarty, said the legal fight is not over.
“We will pursue every avenue of relief for her until she is free,” McCarty said. “We are not abandoning her now, just like we haven’t for the last three years.”
In her closing argument, McCarty described Wilkens as a “55-year-old vegan grandma who’s done her time and paid for her crime.”
Barring an appeal, Wilkens will continue to serve her life sentence for killing her abuser.
