The Onalaska woman convicted of stealing a substantial amount of mail in Lewis County and surrounding areas was sentenced Friday to just under five years in prison.
Amber K. Ingram, 40, pleaded guilty to a total of 47 charges in Lewis County Superior Court in May.
Ingram was transported from the Lewis County Jail to Lewis County Superior Court for her sentencing hearing on Friday. She faced three people who gave testimony on how Ingram’s crimes continue to impact their lives.
“I would like to say I’m sorry for any inconveniences I may have caused,” Ingram said Friday, adding that her goal is to better herself going forward.
“My change starts now,” she said.
Ingram was initially arrested in early January after law enforcement found over 315 pieces of stolen mail in her vehicle and 17 to 19 garbage bags full of stolen mail in her Onalaska residence.
She posted $10,000 bail on Jan. 17 but was rearrested and charged with additional crimes in February after she missed a mandatory court hearing, had stolen mail inside her purse at the time she was arrested on a warrant and was found with fentanyl in her bra when she was booked into the Lewis County Jail.
A third batch of charges was filed in March after law enforcement connected her to a paycheck and a bank card that were reported stolen out of mailboxes.
“Some of it was junk mail, but there were things like bank statements, checks,” Deputy Prosecutor Scott Jackson said Friday.
The stolen mail also included medical ID, vehicle registrations, Christmas cards and more, Jackson said.
In total, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office identified 54 named victims of Ingram’s mail theft and 779 different addresses on the recovered stolen mail.
One victim had a box containing his late daughter’s ashes stolen by Ingram. The box was recovered by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, but the ashes themselves were still missing as of Friday.
Another victim, 81-year-old Mairi Holman, had a lien placed on her property after her bills were stolen from her mail.
“She needs to be held accountable,” Holman said of Ingram on Friday.
Business owner Chandra Shilley spoke Friday of the struggles she is still having with her business because Ingram stole packages out of her mail.
“The rest of us are still left picking up the pieces of her crimes,” Shilley said.
Many of the identified victims have expressed concerns to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office about future problems that the identity theft could cause for them in the future, Jackson said.
“They don’t know where their information has gone out to.”
While defense attorney Jacob Clark argued in favor of a 25-month jail-based drug offender sentencing alternative (DOSA) for Ingram, Judge James Lawler granted the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office’s request for a sentence at the high end of the standard sentencing range, which is calculated based on the defendant’s offender score and the severity of the crimes.
In the first case, which was filed Jan. 11, Ingram was sentenced on 30 charges: one count of possession of stolen property, 16 counts of possession of stolen mail and 13 counts of second-degree identity theft.
In her second case, filed Feb. 27, Ingram was sentenced on 11 charges: one count of mail theft, one count of second-degree possession of stolen property, one count of possessing a controlled substance in a correctional facility and three counts of second-degree identity theft.
In her third case, filed March 30, Ingram was sentenced on six charges: two counts of second-degree identity theft and one count each of second-degree theft, third-degree theft, forgery and second-degree possession of stolen property.
Ingram was sentenced 57 months for each of the identity theft charges, 12 months the mail theft charges, 364 days for the third-degree theft and possession of a controlled substance charges, and 29 months for each of the remaining charges.
All sentences run concurrently, meaning Ingram’s sentence ends at the end of her longest sentence, which is 57 months.
State law prohibits judges from delivering a sentence outside of the standard sentencing range except in extreme circumstances.
“People often say, ‘It’s just identity theft, so it’s really no big deal.’ My perspective is that it’s one of the most damaging things that you can do to someone,” Lawler said Friday as he explained his decision to set Ingram’s sentence at the high end of the standard range. “That kind of impact on people deserves the high end of the sentencing range.”
As part of her plea deal, Ingram has agreed to pay restitution to the identified victims in an amount that will be determined at a future hearing. Payments were approved Friday for two victims, one who had a check stolen and another who had a bank card stolen.
The defense and prosecuting attorneys have yet to decide whether that restitution will include $6,000 in costs accrued so far by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, which has been working to return the stolen mail to its rightful owners.
Ingram’s sentence also includes no-contact orders prohibiting Ingram from contacting any of the named victims in the future.
In addition, Lawler sentenced Ingram to three months of community custody to be completed at the end of her jail sentence.
“Hopefully you mean the things you say and you’re going to do things differently this time around. You have plenty of time to think about it,” Lawler said to Ingram on Friday.
