Miller and Hershey to be sentenced

Two high-profile cases will be coming to an end Thursday at the Bourbon County Courthouse.

Robert L. Miller and Vanessa Hershey each entered guilty pleas in their respective cases and will be sentenced Thursday before 6th District Judge Mark Ward in Bourbon County District Court.

Miller's sentencing hearing will begin at 1 p.m. and Hershey's sentencing hearing will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Bourbon County District Court on the third floor of the Bourbon County Courthouse, 210 S. National Ave.

Miller was charged with first-degree murder in connection with a December 2009 incident which left 37-year-old Tynce Joles II dead as a result of being shot. According to the Fort Scott Police Department, shots were reported on the night of Dec. 12, 2009. Upon arrival at the scene in the 300 block of North Ford Street, officers found a vehicle near the intersection of Elm and Mineral streets with Joles unresponsive in the driver's seat. Joles died after being transported to Mercy Health Center.

Miller remains in custody at the Southeast Kansas Regional Correctional Center on a $1 million bond. Miller was scheduled to begin trial in October 2010, however, it was postponed one month.

The trial was then canceled after Miller entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and one count of battery. Bourbon County Attorney Terri Johnson and Miller's attorney, Charles O'Hara of Wichita, agreed to recommend a sentence of 43 months for the charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, and four months for the battery charge, for a total consecutive sentence of 47 months. But Ward will make the final sentencing decision.

More than two years after the accident that took the life of her 12-year-old daughter, Monica, Hershey will also learn her sentence. She pleaded guilty Nov. 18 to involuntary manslaughter. She was originally set to be sentenced in December 2010, but it was rescheduled due to time constraints.

Hershey was arrested in late May 2009 on a Bourbon County warrant for several charges, including involuntary manslaughter while driving, driving while under the influence of alcohol, possession of simulated controlled substances and drug paraphernalia, and transporting an open container and racing on highways following a Dec. 1, 2008 accident that left her daughter dead.

Hershey lost control of the 1998 Toyota she was driving northbound on the inside lane of U.S. Highway 69 near Shepherd Team Auto Plaza and entered the outside lane. She over-corrected, causing the vehicle to travel across the inside lane of southbound traffic and strike a curb on the vehicle's passenger side. The vehicle then went airborne and rolled several times, coming to rest on 19th Street.

According to a Kansas Highway Patrol accident report, none of the vehicle's occupants were wearing safety restraints. Hershey suffered unknown injuries during the crash and was eventually life-flighted to St. John's Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. Hershey's son, Jason, 13, was another passenger in the vehicle at the time of the accident. He was ejected from the vehicle and suffered unknown injuries.