(KSL.com) FARMINGTON, Utah During her sentence on Monday, a Utah mother who confessed to killing her two children, James Warhola, age 8, and Jean Marie Warhola, age 7, stated that she was terrified that her husband and his buddies would murder her and have sex with her kids.
For me, I had no other option at the time. It’s unfair because of this. Through a Korean translator, Sun Cha Warhola stated, “My sister is waiting for me; I would like to return to Korea.”
“It’s simply unthinkable that I killed my children,” she added. I still find it hard to comprehend, yet I was aware at the time that I and my children were being targeted.
A year ago, Sun Cha Warhola, 59, entered a guilty plea to two charges of murder, a first-degree crime, despite having a mental health issue. However, her sentencing hearing was postponed while she received mental health therapy. On Monday, she arrived for her hearing in handcuffs, dressed in pants and a black-and-white blouse.
Between 2011 and 2019, when she was deemed fit to face trial, Warhola’s case was put on hold for years while she was in Utah State Hospital. After she was once more determined to be incompetent, her case resumed its progress, albeit with further setbacks.
Warhola was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for each count by Second District Judge Michael Edwards, who also gave her credit for her time in custody and ordered the sentences to be served concurrently. He said that the concurrent sentences demonstrated her schizophrenia and that the Board of Pardons and Parole had the authority to release her sooner if it deems it suitable.
“I wish there was more I could do to reverse the actions that were taken or to alleviate the pain caused by the killing of those two lovely children,” Edwards remarked.
The judge urged Warhola to do as much good as she can wherever she ends up and expressed his hope that she will continue to be capable and healthy.
Impact of the crime
Kenneth Warhola was also allowed to talk about his late children and how their untimely deaths affected him at Monday’s session. He described to the judge how his daughter Jean Marie was the only student in the class to get every spelling word correct on their first exam, demonstrating her exceptional spelling skills. He claimed that his young daughter adored princesses as well.
Kenneth Warhola went on to talk about his son James, who would get deeply into the things he loved, from Indiana Jones and Star Wars to Thomas the Tank Engine. He claimed that his son had recently made significant progress in his reading skills and was beginning to read lengthy paragraphs by himself. The father speculated that James might have gone on to become a computer programmer.
Standing beside the father of the children, a victim’s advocate looked through pictures of kids in amusement parks and in the outdoors while he talked about his recollections of them.
Kenneth Warhola claimed that the fact that his ex-wife killed their daughter by blunt force trauma hurts him greatly. He claimed that his son was tied up and given poison such that his only means of survival was to bite his mother with his teeth.
He told the court, “You can never completely comprehend, but you can imagine what it felt like to discover that your children’s bodies were in plastic bags kept in your bedroom, awaiting delivery to the morgue.”
On September 9, 2010, about fifteen years ago, Kenneth Warhola discovered his children dead in his son’s chamber. He claimed that he kissed them the previous evening without realizing that he would never see them alive again. In order to commemorate the lives of both of his children and pay tribute to their memories, he requested that the judge sentence Sun Cha Warhola to consecutive sentences.
Nathan Lyon, the Deputy Davis County Attorney, stated that Kenneth Warhola should be given closure, an opportunity to recover, and the opportunity to move on.
Lyon remarked, “I can’t even begin to comprehend losing a child, let alone both children.” Mr. Warhola had been coping with this for fifteen years, and the extent and depth of the suffering, the anguish, and the despair was unfathomable.
Argument for leniency
The judge turned down Sun Cha Warhola’s lawyer’s request to postpone the punishment so that she may receive more mental health care. In order to help her retain her level of competency while incarcerated, Edward Brass, her lawyer, requested additional therapy for a maximum of eighteen months.
According to Brass, he has been Warhola’s lawyer since the week following the deaths of her children. She was curled up in a ball on the cell floor when they first met. He claimed to have witnessed firsthand the effect this had on her and the perfect tragedy it was.
He claimed that Sun Cha Warhola had been let down by the mental health system until she arrived at Utah State Hospital. Brass stated that she could spend the rest of her life alternating between state hospitals and jails under the judge’s sentence, which is why he originally asked for additional treatment.
Speaking on her behalf at the sentencing, Sun Cha Warhola’s psychiatrist, Dr. Edward Kelly, characterized her as a cherished, consistently cheerful, and gregarious person at Utah State Hospital. According to him, his patient has made good progress and would likely have been discharged into the community by now in many other states.
According to Kelly, Sun Cha Warhola’s sister in Korea is open to taking her in, which would provide her with a highly encouraging setting. Meanwhile, he stated he did not know how she would manage prison and that the state hospital was the best place for her.
