AP News, February 1st, 2007
A mother convicted of allowing her three children to drown has matured and become more spiritual in jail, her mother testified Thursday, asking for leniency in her daughter's sentence for child endangerment.
"She paid the ultimate price by losing her kids because of abuse and she has finally come to accept how she needs to change her life," Ann Powers, the mother of Amanda Hamm, said at the sentencing hearing.
Hamm, 30, was convicted in December in the deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 1, who were trapped inside a car that sank in Clinton Lake in 2003. Hamm was cleared of first-degree murder charges that would have sent her to prison for life.
She faces a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years. The judge also could release Hamm with credit for the more than three years she has served awaiting trial and sentencing.
The children's father has said he wants the maximum sentence imposed.
Prosecutors allege Hamm and then-boyfriend Maurice LaGrone Jr. planned the deaths because the children were in the way of their relationship. Hamm and LaGrone, who was convicted of first-degree murder, have maintained the car accidentally rolled into the water as LaGrone tried to back up from a boat ramp.
Powers said when Hamm is released from jail, she wants to get an education and counsel abuse victims because of Hamm's past abusive relationships, including with LaGrone.
After Powers argued for leniency, prosecutor Roger Simpson asked Powers what sentence she thought would be justice for her grandkids.
Powers choked back tears and said she didn't think Hamm meant for her children to die.
"I don't think there's any intent. ... I don't really know what to say," she said.
Defense attorney Steve Skelton has said he will ask that Hamm be released with credit for the time she already has spent in jail. He also plans to appeal her conviction.
LaGrone, 31, serving a life sentence without a chance of parole, has appealed his conviction.
