Local woman sentenced for home invasion burglary

WALLACE — The Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office reports that Jennifer Woll, 36, of Pinehurst has received a five-year prison sentence for a home invasion burglary that occurred in October 2017.

Woll was arrested on Oct. 26 after a homeowner, John Heyn, caught her attempting to flee his residence with stolen firearms and other miscellaneous items shortly after he, his wife and two small children had left. Heyn drew a firearm on Woll to keep her from escaping the scene and held her there until law enforcement arrived to take the suspect into custody.

After hearing the homeowner’s plea for justice, the Prosecutor’s Office stated in a news release that Deputy Prosecutor Benjamin Allen urged the court on Monday to consider a five-year prison sentence.

“While these two charges are serious in and of themselves,” he explained, “the most alarming part of this case is that the residential burglary committed by this defendant occurred with a home invasion, involving the attempted theft of numerous items including two loaded firearms, occurred during early morning hours and involved a residence that had two small children inside at the time of the burglary.”

Woll made a plea for leniency to the court and her attorney requested credit for time served and supervised probation. However, the court decided to side with the prosecution.

Her five-year sentence will be two years fixed and three years indeterminate. This means that under certain circumstance decided by the court (such as good behavior), Woll has the possibility of being released in two years.

Heyn was critical of the ruling and believes that she should have received a stiffer punishment.

“I think she should have been put away for longer than that,” he said. “Those two felonies are a combined 17 years maximum penalty and she’s basically going to get out in two.”

He added that the reasoning for his belief is based on the safety of his family.

“If somebody broke into your home with two small kids and two loaded firearms, don’t you think that they should get put away for a little while?”

Allen explained that sentencing can be both difficult and complex to understand, especially from convict to convict.

“For the defendant in this case,” he said, “it was her first felony offense and she had a very minimal criminal history compared to the vast majority of defendants that come through the justice system. Generally speaking, most offenders will only receive probation for their first felony offense and it often isn’t until a third or fourth felony offense that we actually see prison sentences handed out by the courts in most instances.”

In the case of Woll, Allen believes he and the Prosecutor’s Office fought hard for the victims by pushing a prison sentence and refusing any sort of plea deal because of the trauma the family endured.

“At the end of the day, the state’s goal was to advocate as strongly as we could for a sentence that would ensure this defendant would see the inside of a prison as our office believed the facts of this case and the seriousness of the offense warranted just that.”

The Idaho State Repository shows that Woll was arrested on a separate misdemeanor charge in April 2017 for unlawful entry.

To see our full story on Woll’s arrest in October, visit www.shoshonenewspress.com and search for “SCSO: HOMEOWNER HOLDS BURGLAR AT GUNPOINT UNTIL POLICE ARRIVE.”