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Re: B ward -- it is over, 14:27:11 09/18/06 Mon
Sunday, August 20, 2006
BY ANDY KRAVETZ
Copley News Service
PEORIA - Biannca Ward, a former Richwoods High School basketball star, was sentenced to six years in prison Friday, but she could get out in about six months if accepted into the state’s “boot-camp” program.
Even if that happens, it does not mean the Journal Star’s 2005 Class AA Player of The Year would escape further scrutiny. She also was sentenced to four years of probation, which starts when she is released.
Ward, 17, told Peoria County Circuit Judge James Shadid she wants to turn her life around and make changes. She admitted she followed the advice of “bad friends” and apologized for breaking into houses in the Rolling Acres subdivision, as well as holding up a 64-year-old woman outside Michael’s Arts and Crafts, 5212 N. Big Hollow Road, two months later.
But she couldn’t give Shadid a good answer for why a person with a seemingly bright future and possible college career would put herself in a position to lose it all. Ward did say she began using crack cocaine in the months preceding the break-ins in January.
Shadid, who has sentenced dozens of teenagers in his courtroom, said he didn’t buy the drug excuse but decided to give her a second chance with boot camp and probation, telling Ward she’s “on the hook.”
“If during the four-year probation, you don’t do what’s required, then you’ll end up right back here and then all the sentencing options . . . will be available,” the judge said.
Ward pleaded guilty in June to two counts of residential burglary and one count of attempted residential burglary for the break-ins in January. She also pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery for the holdup outside Michael’s.
On Jan. 12, Ward and two others broke into two homes in Rolling Acres, stealing money, jewelry and a firearm. The attempted burglary charge stems from an incident when the trio tried to break into a Peoria police officer’s home.
Ward faced a mandatory prison sentence of at least four years for the residential burglary counts. However, her attorney Timothy Cusack sought and obtained a recommendation from Shadid that Ward participate in the impact incarceration program, more commonly known as boot camp.
It is a military-style program that lasts four to six months. If Ward is accepted into the program and completes it, she will not have to finish the rest of her prison sentence.
The robbery charge stems from a March 21 incident in the Michael’s parking lot. A Wyoming woman said she was walking from her car into the store when Ward snatched her purse while brandishing a fake gun.
Cusack implored Shadid not to see his client as a fallen athlete but rather a teenager addicted to drugs. He noted her lack of criminal history and her youth as reasons for a second chance. But Assistant State’s Attorney Larry Evans saw it the other way and pushed for prison on both charges.
He noted Ward had opportunities others didn’t.
“Look at all the other children in high school, junior college who didn’t make choices like the defendant’s. They didn’t have everyone fawning over them. They didn’t have people telling them how great they were,” Evans said.
Cusack, however, pointed out that attention might have been the pressure that led Ward down the wrong path. After the hearing, the defense attorney said anyone who thinks she was getting a break was mistaken.
“If she thought the pressure was bad enough to convince her to do drugs, then she has no idea” what to expect while on probation, the attorney said
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