BUCYRUS — Mary Kinkead, 40, of Crestline was sentenced to prison Monday afternoon in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
Kinkead pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony of child endangering, a third-degree felony of tampering with evidence and a first-degree misdemeanor of endangering children. Visibly emotional and often tearful, Kinkead appeared with her court appointed attorney, Tani Eyer.
In a separate case, Kinkead’s husband, Wesley Kinkead, received double life sentences for the rape of his two daughters and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.
Before pronouncing sentence, Judge Sean Leuthold heard summaries from both the state and the defense regarding this case.
“We just did dad’s sentence last week. I believe Mrs. Kinkead is remorseful,” Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Hoovler said. “She worked with our detectives and aided in our prosecution. I want Mrs. Kinkead to know that her children still love her. But she did not protect them from the evil of their father. All she had to do was make a call to stop the torture and abuse done to them by their father.”
Eyer called the case “heartbreaking”. She told the court her client is remorseful and regretful.
“If she could turn back time and do things differently, she would, “Eyer said. “But that is not possible. She wants her daughters to get counseling so they can go on and have a good life. She thought it would be best to try to keep her family intact. She knows she was wrong and accepts responsibility for her actions.”
When asked if she had anything to say, Kinkead told the court she had really “screwed up”. She said she loves her kids and her family.
Leuthold told the court that no one believes Mrs. Kinkead participated in the abuse. He said she is not a pedophile.
“The monster, the pedophile, is serving a double life sentence in prison, right where he should be,” Leuthold said. “I’m sure everyone is sleeping better knowing he will never be able to hurt another child.”
Leuthold said he believes Kinkead was emotionally and probably physically abused by her husband. He noted that in the victim letter read by Hoovler during the father’s sentencing the victim mentioned how often he abused their mother.
“To a certain degree he sat at home perpetrating his evil while she worked to support the family,” Leuthold said. “The family, to a point, was held captive to his violence. I have some compassion for Mrs. Kinkead, but I have much more compassion for these poor children who had no ability to protect themselves from this.
“One call, one trip to the hospital could have stopped this and maybe even spared the youngest child from being hurt,” Leuthold continued. “But for some reason, Mrs. Kinkead had more loyalty to this monster than to her own children. And for that she must go to prison.”
Leuthold noted that the five-year-old victim suffered horrible injuries due to the rape. After three days of bleeding, the mother took the child to the hospital. That action blew the case wide open.
“Eventually her actions revealed this evil but it’s unforgivable that she let he children be exposed to this. That’s why prison is the only option here.” Leuthold said.
Leuthold told Kinkead that it was a shame she could not rise above the abuse to get help. Leuthold then sentenced Kinkead to 36 months in prison on the child endangering charge, 24 months in prison on the tampering with evidence and 73 days in jail on the misdemeanor child endangerment charge.
After conferring with the children’s care giver, Leuthold decided to allow Mrs. Kinkead to write to her children from prison and have other contact as approved by the caregiver.
Leuthold gave Kinkead a stern warning: “If I find out you are communicating with your husband from prison or if you two are having some kind of long-distance romance, I will stop any contact you have with your girls. He’s is liable to try to get you to speak to these girls on his behalf and that is not going to happen. He is never going to have any contact with them ever again. Do you understand me?”
Kinkead acknowledged that she did and said that she planned to file for divorce while in prison.
“Filing for divorce may be the smartest thing you’ve done in a long time,” Leuthold said.