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The headline is a little vague so I should clarify. Wynonna Judd’s daughter, Grace Pauline Kelley, 22, pled guilty to meth possession and to evading arrest in May, 2017. She was charged with manufacturing meth with the intent to distribute, but only pled to the lesser charges. On the possession charge she was sentenced to 11 months and 30 days in jail, but only had to serve 30 days with the remainder of her sentence suspended to probation. For the evading arrest charge she got a four year sentence that was suspended as long as she went to rehab for 180 days. So basically she got 30 days in jail, 180 days in rehab and four years probation. Only Grace skipped out on rehab and now has to serve an eight year sentence for violating probation.
Wynonna Judd‘s daughter, Grace Pauline Kelley, has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
PEOPLE confirms the 22-year-old, whose father is Judd’s first husband Arch Kelley, is currently behind bars at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tennessee, and has been serving her jail time since April.
Kelley’s release date is August 10, 2025, but she is eligible for parole on February 4, 2019.
A rep for Judd did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Kelley was sentenced to prison for leaving a court-mandated drug recovery program, violating her probation, according to Radar Online, which also reported that her arrest was issued in November 2017.
A friend of mine has a drug-addicted son around this age. She has bonded him out of jail so many times, and has left him there a few times hoping he’ll sober up. He’s currently missing and unless he gets taken into custody within the next few months (which is likely, given his history), she’s on the hook for thousands of dollars. More than that she hopes he’s ok. It’s heartbreaking to have an adult child with addiction issues, and as we’ve seen from Cameron Douglas and Redmond O’Neal, this transcends family background and wealth. (Although of course having more money and influence means that offenders have more chances to avoid consequences.)
I hope that, for Grace’s sake, spending time in jail helps her break the cycle of addiction. There are no easy answers, but many advocates tout the successes of drug courts for addicts instead of the traditional court system.
Grace’s father is Wynonna’s first husband, Arch Kelley. In 2007, Wynonna’s second husband of four years, her former bodyguard Daniel Roach, was convicted of attempted aggravated sexual battery against a minor under 13. In an interview on Oprah, Wynonna did not reveal Roach’s victim but said that it was someone she knew and that “It’s their story [to tell] when they’re ready to talk.”
photos credit: WENN, Getty and via Daily Mail
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