Prosecutor says ‘not one time has he expressed any remorse’ as Hernandez is sentenced for brutal murder
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IDAHO FALLS — An Ammon man who murdered a woman with a baseball bat inside her home last year was sentenced Monday.
Jameion K. Hernandez appeared before District Judge Dane Watkins to answer for the murder of Lisa Stukey in June 2017. As Hernandez wiped tears from his eyes, Watkins sentenced the 20-year-old to serve 25 years to life in prison.
“To this point, not one time has he expressed any remorse for what he has done to this victim,” Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Clark said during his statements. “Not once. And that’s troubling.”
During his arguments, Clark referenced the state average for sentences in cases of first-degree murder where a firearm is not used. The average, provided to him by the Idaho Department of Corrections, is 28.8 years fixed with the indeterminate time varying.
Clark recommended Hernandez receive 30 years fixed to life indeterminate.
Hernandez’s defense attorney, James Archibald, recommended 10 years and cited local cases, in part, to defend that recommendation.
RELATED: Jameion Hernandez pleads guilty to murdering woman with baseball bat
He cited the Jeremy White case, where White was sentenced to 15 years fixed for second-degree murder and the Heather Elam case where Elam was sentenced to six years fixed after feeding her baby meth, which resulted in her death. She was charged with manslaughter.
Archibald explained the abuse Hernandez received as a child. His biological mother was 13 when she gave birth to Hernandez. He was physically, emotionally and sexually abused and he and his half-sister were bounced around from foster family to foster family until he was taken in by the Lively family.
Hernandez told investigators Stukey separated his grandfather from his family and managed to get his grandfather to write his father out of his will.
Archibald said it was the alleged problems Stukey was involved in with the family saying those problems showed her “true character.”
“To an immature boy who sees it cause distress to the Livelys – it was overwhelming to him,” Archibald said.
Clark discussed Hernandez’s conduct while in jail and how he reportedly bragged to the other inmates about what he had done.
“He wanted people in jail — now this is interesting — to call him ‘Louisville’ or to call him ‘Slugger,'” Clark said. “He and his friends all want to get tattoos to commemorate this. Put ‘Louisville Slugger’ or a bat tattoo.”
RELATED: Detective: Hernandez broke into Lisa Stukey’s home, killed her with a baseball bat
During his statements before the court, Hernandez said he didn’t kill Stukey because of “rage or because of money.”
“It was about the loss of somebody I cared about,” Hernandez said. “I know that I did wrong. I know that I need to be punished. Whatever you happen to come to a conclusion on, I will respect it.”
Watkins said he had a hard time reconciling the picture of Stukey’s body when it was found weeks after she was murdered and the picture of Hernandez as a happy 10-year-old boy he was handed at the beginning of the hearing.
“There is nothing that this court can do to restore what you have taken,” Watkins said. “You did it in a way, as I look at this photograph, that has removed even the dignity of leaving this existence.”