43 year old Jason Oskins has been re-sentenced to 60 years in prison for murdering his elderly grandmother in 1995.
Oskins’ original sentenced was sent back to Wabash County Circuit Court after the 5th District Appellate Court ruled the 60 year term was basically a life sentence who was 14 days shy of his 18th birthday when the killing took place. The appellate court said minors cannot be given a life sentence which is 40 years or more.
During yesterday’s resentencing hearing, state’s attorney Kelli Storckman argued that Oskins’ case was one of “irretrievable depravity” and he deserved the extended sentence. She outlined the brutality of the murder in which Oskins stabbed his grandmother in the back 6 times, slammed her head with a skillet, and placed a bag over her head attempting to strangle her. Oskins was upset his grandmother was making him do chores and he was going to miss a date with his girlfriend. Instead, Oskins picked up his girlfriend and brought her back to the home to have sex while his dead grandmother was still in the house. Afterwards, Oskins disposed of the body in a rural Wabash County ditch and then told police she hadn’t returned home from church. Only after the body was found did Oskins confess to the murder.
Public defender James Lane yesterday painted a picture of Oskins being a model inmate over the last 25 years and asked Judge William C. Hudson to essentially give Oskins a sentence for time served that would have put him back on the street immediately.
Oskins testified yesterday, if released, he had lined up an apartment on West 8th Street and had already had a possible job prospect.
But, Hudson sided with Storckman citing much of the comments made by former Judge Robert Keenan at the original sentencing hearing in 1997 on the brutality of the crime.
Oskins was remanded back to the Wabash County Jail where he’s been for the last 53 days before being sent back to prison to resume serving his sentence.
