If she served the entire sentence she would not be released until spring of 2017, but in May she filed a motion for judicial release, which she qualified for after 180 days.
During a hearing Wednesday at the Logan County Jail, Fowler’s lawyer, Darrell Heckman, said Fowler meets the criteria for early release because she has stayed out of trouble in prison, had no criminal record prior to this incident, and has a place to live and possible employment lined up if released.
“I’ve never had a client that was a better candidate for judicial release,” Heckman said. Fowler was not present for the hearing.
Anyone who says the eight months she’s been incarcerated represent a “slap on the wrist,” he said, “hasn’t served eight months in prison.”
Fowler pleaded guilty last year to charges of failure to stop after an accident and tampering with evidence connected to the Feb. 16, 2014, death of Gunnery Sgt. Monica Plank, along South Main Street in Bellefontaine.
Plank and her husband, Chris, were on leave from the Marines and were visiting family in Ohio with their five children when she was killed while walking from the 68 Grill back to their hotel.
The couple was walking north in the northbound lanes of traffic on Main Street because the sidewalks were covered in more than four feet of snow.
Police later located Fowler’s vehicle at a nearby bowling alley and questioned her. The burgundy Chevy Malibu bore evidence of damage consistent with the hit-skip scene, police said.
Initially, Fowler denied any involvement and denied knowing how the damage to her car occurred, but she later admitted responsibility.
Chris Plank and other family asked that Fowler be given the maximum sentence of three years in prison at her sentencing in October, and they were in the courtroom Wednesday to ask that she serve out the time she has left.
“Every shortening of her prison sentence lessens the value of Monica’s life,” her father-in-law Darius Plank, of West Liberty, said. “It’s disrespectful to her husband, her children and the U.S. Marine Corps.”
Monica Plank served in Afghanistan as a medic on Huey and Cobra helicopters and was a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C.
Heckman outlined several things he said contributed to Plank’s death that night, besides his client’s actions, including the sidewalks not being cleared, Plank’s dark clothing and her being intoxicated.
“I’m sure she wishes she didn’t have a .19 blood-alcohol content when she wobbled up the road,” he said.
But Prosecutor Eric Stewart pointed out that Fowler’s actions — leaving the scene even after circling back to see Plank and her husband on the ground, getting her windshield fixed and hiding from police for seven days — were all choices she made that demand justice.
“If Holly had stopped, maybe we’d have her blood-alcohol content,” he said.
Darius Plank said the family hopes the judge rules to keep Fowler in jail, but if not, they’ll accept his decision.
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