As all of you probably know by now, Geralyn Graham was convicted of child abuse and kidnapping in the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, but the jury deadlocked on the murder charge. Eleven to one. I’m assuming it was eleven to one in favor of conviction, but they won’t say. I was afraid she would be acquitted outright. The case against her was so weak, even though we all know she did it.
It looks like the prosecutor won’t retry on the murder charge. It kind of makes more sense not to: the case has dragged on for so long and cost so much taxpayer money. A murder conviction means a life sentence, but the charges Graham has already been convicted of, according to the article I linked to, could mean 30 years or more in jail, and I see no reason why the judge would go easy on her. Geralyn Graham is now 67 years old, so that would basically be a life sentence anyway.
Poor Rilya. As I pointed out before, her name may have been an acronym for “Remember I Love You Always” but I don’t think anyone loved her while she was alive.
The Charley Project Blog 
it’s really unfortunate they didn’t convict her of murder, but there was no body and no witnesses etc, so it was always a possibility. But yes, she is facing essentially life in prison. It is some justice, but it would be better if they were able to find where Rilya is. That whole story was just a horrible tragedy.
Maybe she’ll decide to bargain, give up Rilya for a sentence reduction.
that’s possible. I thought maybe they would try to get her to admit it by using the possibility of a new murder trial as leverage. So the next thing would be offering her her a shorter sentence and the possibility of parole if she gives up Rilya’s location.
This is a lot like the current Phoenix Sinclair inquiry here in Canada. Was in foster care and died at the hands of her mother and mother’s boyfriend. She was dead for ten months and no one even knew where she was, even her father. It’s horrifying. There was justice, her mother and the boyfriend are in prison for life.
As I sit here trying to distract myself from the nice enough new girl upstairs, who comes home after 2d shift with what seems to be a bunch of tigers racing around ;- , I checked into this story … I’m late to the table, so please bear w/ me! W/ her past, why was this woman allowed to be a foster parent at all?! Such a sweet name///its meaning – obviously then I’m thinking she had a bio-mother who loved her but mebbe was stuck in drugs or something ? do we know anything about her ??? And Saffy, I hadn’t heard about Phoenix, either, but that is too, too sad ;(
Bio-mom is a crack addict. Had all her kids taken away. She hadn’t seen Rilya since 1996.
one of Rilya’s sisters, who had been in foster care, testified at the trial
Yeah, I heard about that. I wonder how the younger sister, Rodericka, is doing. I tried to find out but she has a new name now.