COURT: VanWinkle sentenced on drug, handgun possession charges

May 16--In 2010, a Berea woman was sentenced on rape and sodomy charges. When arrested on those charges, she was on probation stemming from a guilty plea to reckless abuse of an adult for her role in the abuse of a Madison Manor resident.

Now, 34-year-old Jaclyn VanWinkle has been sentenced to seven years on charges of drug trafficking and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

VanWinkle, of Pinewood Road, was sentenced May 10 in Madison Circuit Court to five years on the handgun possession charge, and two years on a heroin trafficking charge.

VanWinkle, 26 at the time of her 2010 sentencing on third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy charges, pleaded guilty to the charges that stemmed from an incident involving a 15-year-old boy.

Richmond police charged VanWinkle after the boy told detectives she had given him alcohol, performed sex acts on him and then had intercourse with him.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that VanWinkle receive one-year sentences on both the rape charge and sodomy charge, with both sentences to run concurrently for a total of one year in prison.

When she was arrested on those charges, VanWinkle was on probation stemming from a guilty plea to for her role in the abuse of a Madison Manor resident.

VanWinkle had worked as a nurse's aide at the facility, and was charged in connection with a hidden-camera investigation into the treatment of Armeda Thomas, a resident who later died.

Prosecutors with the state attorney general's office had made a plea agreement with VanWinkle that probated a 12-month jail sentence in exchange for her cooperation with the investigation, and VanWinkle pleaded guilty in April 2009 to the reckless abuse charge.

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