Man charged with manslaughter gets slap on the wrist
WABASH CO.—State’s attorney Cassandra Goldman has apparently decided to keep with her impeccable record of not taking anyone to a jury trial by making Jeremy Birkla an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Birkla is the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) punk who, last September, got into a physical altercation with Billy Gunzel and beat the snot out of him. Gunzel wound up in a hospital in Evansville, then later died from complications of an infection that was exacerbated by the beating. Whereas Birkla was first charged with Aggravated Battery causing Great Bodily Harm, when Gunzel died, he was subsequently charged with Involuntary Manslaughter.
On May 21, in what was set for a pretrial hearing, Birkla instead entered a plea to the Involuntary Manslaughter, which was a relief to the family of Gunzel.
But today, sentencing was handed down….and it was less than expected. A lot less.
The real Birkla.
Birkla received a sentence of 30 months probation and one year of “periodic imprisonment” (weekends in jail) for beating a man so badly that he later died as an indirect result of the injuries. We’re not sure of the remorse factor; Birkla is now displaying “Christian” images on his Facebook page, which differs from what was there at the time of the incident if we’re remembering correctly….he seemed to be promoting a “bad boy” image but now…he’s cleaned up his act.
He’s not even MMA fighting; he’s given that up. Wouldn’t you know.
Cassandra Goldman is a nice person. She would, once in awhile, do well in a defense matter before she was elected prosecutor. But she has been a dismal failure in the elected position. We’ve heard of NOTHING substantial coming out of her office in the four years she’s been in, and guess what, people? Unless someone takes out a petition for Independent candidate, SHE’S IN FOR THE NEXT FOUR. So plea deals are going to be the norm in Wabash, and people like Jeremy Birkla are going to continue to get away with killing other people. It’ll be a blue-eyed wonder if this most recent child sex offender-charged dweeb sees anything resembling justice done to him if convicted. But that’s what Wabash wanted, and that’s what they got. So the lesson for the rest of us is: choose your elected officials wisely. You never know when an MMA punk is going to stomp a mudhole in someone’s head and that head just happens to have an infection, which later kills him. The outrage may not be so grand since it’s Billy Gunzel. But next time, it could be you or yours.
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Posted by Jack Howser
on Jul 9 2012. Filed under Breaking, Wabash.
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the picture is wrong. Guy on left is henry from mount vernon and the guy on right is chris from missouri.
Thanks…I’ll correct.
Sorry to let facts intercede, but your “outrage” needs to be pointed toward Judge Sawyer. Goldman asked for the maximum 5 years in prison. Sawyer sentenced him to the “slap on the wrist”. There was no “plea bargain” in this case. Not sure what else she could’ve done when she argued for the max. What exactly more could have been done if it had gone to a jury trial? He would have been found guilty of a charge of involuntary manslaughter (or maybe even acquitted, who knows?) The conviction would then have been sentenced by Judge Sawyer, just as it was in this case. Having a jury trial wouldn’t have changed the sentencing hearing. The jury wouldn’t have pronounced sentencing, Sawyer would have. He pleaded guilty to the charge. But then again, that wouldn’t be nearly as distasteful if we let facts get in the way of a good rant! I’m all for bashing public officials (Goldman included), but you’re off base on this one.
Oh brother.
All our sources pointed to Cassandra.
We’ll take the hit for this one. Thanks for pointing it out, Pam. We really appreciated it. Good ol Steve…he’s a Dem, isn’t he?
Yes he is. In fact, his wife is the long time Democrat chairperson and combined the two of them make more than $260,000/year off of the taxpayers’ teat!
this is exactly why i wish involuntary manslaughter was a non-probational felony.