Granger sentenced to 60 years in prison

Clark County

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December 10, 2009

Henryville woman plans to appeal the decision

By BRADEN LAMMERS The News and Tribune Thu Dec 10, 2009, 10:46 PM EST

Sheila Granger, 33, of Henryville and a New Albany hair dresser, was sentenced on Thursday to a total of 60 years in prison for molesting two juvenile boys from August 2007 to August 2008.

Clark County Superior Court No. 1 Judge Vicki Carmichael handed down the verdict on nine felonies — five counts of class A felony child molesting, three counts of class C felony child molesting and one count of class D felony child solicitation. Granger was convicted by a Clark County jury on Nov. 12.

Before Carmichael announced the sentence a tearful Granger read a statement to the court.

She asked for the court to take into account when determining her prison term that she has no previous record of criminal offenses and her exemplary behavior while in custody. When Granger began to speak about her family, she broke down in tears and was unable to continue.

Granger’s attorney, Thomas Hectus, finished reading the prepared statement for his client.

“I wanted to be able to be there for future things such as proms, graduations, weddings, births of my grandchildren and college ... my imprisonment will result in the hardship of many people, my daughters, me an active mother in their lives to be there for them through all of their milestones,” Hectus said for Granger.

The mothers of each of the victims also wished to read statements to the court.

The Evening News has chosen not to use the names of the women even though both mothers were willing to go on the record, by name.

“I trusted you with my children, I trusted you with my family,” the mother of one victim said. “You were my sister, my confidant, my friend ... you betrayed my whole family, not just my son. You are a monster and I will never, ever forgive you for what you’ve done to my son and my family.”

The mother of the other victim spoke before the court, directly looking at Granger throughout her statement.

“My son is going to have a long road ahead of him,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned there is no sentence in this world that is good enough. You took every precious moment he could experience in his life. You preyed on him and then when you were done with him you preyed on the other one. I ask you, your honor, if you would please do the fullest extent, as much as you possibly can, because this is going to set an example for all of the other women out there that are doing it and getting by with it. No one is standing up for our sons ... and at some point someone has to. I have no pity for you.”

Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Bill Grimes also weighed in before the sentence was announced, urging Carmichael to go along with the guidelines of Indiana’s suggested sentences for child molestation crimes.

“We’ve got three families that have been completely destroyed by this lady,” he said. “When we picked the jury, the situation was if it had been a girl or girls [that were the victims] they’d have been out 15 minutes. In this case it was unique, because it was boys.”

Grimes continued to argue that while the circumstances were unique that the victims of the sexual assault were males, it should not have any bearing on the severity of the sentence.

“The penalties you get are extremely severe whether you are a man or a woman,” Grimes said. “She has committed one of the crimes of crimes; and no matter what we say or do, or what the sentences are, these boys will never be the same again.”

Grimes asked for consecutive sentences and following his presentation, Carmichael laid out her decision.

“In reviewing this case I find the actions of Mrs. Granger particularly disturbing,” she said. “As the football coach’s wife, a friend to one of the mothers and a friend to the children, Mrs. Granger you did violate the trust placed in you by those individuals. Your actions with these two young boys, who are now young men, are reprehensible to this court and to this community.”

Granger was sentenced to 30 years on the convictions relating to each victim, which included the class A, C, and D felonies, the terms of the sentences from each class of felony to run concurrent to with offenses to the alleged victim.

The 30-year terms leveled for each victim were to run consecutively, totaling Granger’s term to 60 years in prison.

Granger said following the reading of her sentence that she plans to appeal.

With that an emotional Granger was led from the courtroom and her husband of 15 years, Phil said, “Keep your head up Sheila, I love you.”

The mothers of the victims were also emotional following the hearing and still somewhat in shock, but said they were hopeful the horrifying experience they have gone through with their sons may convince other young men to come forward under similar circumstances.

“I trusted her, I thought she was just being another mom,” the mother of one victim said. “And never in the back of my mind thought I shouldn’t be able to trust her.”

The other mother was upset at what had been taken away from her son.

“[Granger] took away the first relationship that my son will be able to have, the first girlfriend experience of a teen ... the first intimate moment, the first everything that we as adults got to experience,” she said. “She’s left a mark on them, a mark that’s going to last the rest of their life. It’s never going to go away. Society, I think, needs to step up to the plate as well and make sure they’re just not watching males, they need to be watching females as well. I would’ve never in a million years thought a female would have done something like that to my child. But I guess we kinda walked around with blinders on.”

The next step for Granger is the notice to appeal, which must be filed within 30 days.

But Grimes disagreed with the defendant filing an appeal at all.

“They don’t have anything to appeal,” he said. “To me this appeal is frivolous, there is nothing to appeal.”