Milsap defiant on stand, gets 6-year sentence for bribery
Lafayette mental health therapist plans to appeal in a case that was part of an alleged plot to stop her ex-husband’s trial, eventually leading to the attempted murder of a Tippecanoe County judge.
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MILSAP DEFIANT ON STAND, GETS 6-YEAR SENTENCE FOR BRIBERY
Amanda Milsap, a Lafayette woman convicted earlier in April of attempting to bribe the victim in a domestic violence and gun possession case against her former husband to get her to not testify in his trial, was defiant on the stand during her sentencing Monday, saying she committed no crime when she mentioned gang members were ready to offer the witness $10,000 to lay low.
Milsap told a judge in a lengthy statement that the conversation she had with the victim in the case was misconstrued. Milsap said that she’d had nothing to gain by being part of helping Thomas Moss, her ex-husband, stay out of prison – even as it was painted as a first step that later turned into a larger alleged scheme that led to the Jan. 18 shooting of Tippecanoe County Superior Court Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kim, at the front door of their Lafayette home.
“Knowing from past experience the repercussions of going against Thomas, I created the perception of being cooperative,” Milsap said Monday, after not testifying during her three-day trial three weeks earlier. “I’m just playing my role, thinking I’m manipulating the manipulator, creating the impression of compliance without any intent of ever doing so.”
Judge Lisa Swaim – a Cass County Superior Court judge assigned to Milsap’s case and those accused in an attempted murder plot that developed later – said Milsap could have chosen to not share information about the gang members and their money.
“It’s easy to sometimes argue the semantics of what happened,” Swaim said from the bench in Tippecanoe Circuit Court. “But there is one thing that is clear, and that is it was Ms. Milsap’s decision when she was reaching out (to the victim) … to actually communicate the offer of the money.”
Swaim gave Milsap, 45, a six-year sentence, with three years of that in prison and two years in community corrections. A final year would be on probation.
Earl McCoy, Milsap’s attorney, said she planned to appeal.
