This story first appeared in a Colorado Community Media newspaper. Support CCM’s neighborhood news.
The Evergreen attorney who pleaded guilty to six felonies including soliciting someone to kill her estranged husband’s girlfriend will spend 10 years in prison.
After three and a half hours of testimony during Jennifer Emmi’s sentencing hearing on Monday, District Judge Randall Arp said he saw two sides of Emmi: the successful attorney and loving mother, and then the side of Emmi who committed the criminal acts that also included menacing, attempting to influence a judge and retaliation against a witness.
He said her behavior and her failure to be accountable and take responsibility for her actions indicated she would not be a good candidate for rehabilitation, and her actions could not be condoned in civilized society.
The prosecution asked for the sentence to include prison time, and the defense asked for probation.
Emmi received several other sentences that will be served concurrently with the longest being 10 years, though she was given credit for the seven months she has already been in jail.
Arp said it would be up to the judge in her domestic relations case to decide whether she would be allowed to have contact with her three children.
Emmi, 43, also known as Jennifer Edwards, is an animal rights attorney who began The Animal Law Center and is a media celebrity for her work helping animals. She was originally charged with more than 16 felonies and 16 misdemeanors filed over the last 20 months. The rest of the charges have been dismissed.
The prosecution argued that Emmi had repeatedly tried to find someone to kill her estranged husband’s girlfriend and had endangered her children. This newspaper is choosing not to provide specifics of some of the charges to protect the children.