A 47-year-old Lincoln woman offered an apology to her teenage victim and his mother Tuesday before a judge sent her to prison for sexual assault.
"I am so sorry for what you've been through,"Â Sunny Gibbons said, turning to face the boy's mother behind her. "I'm deeply ashamed by my actions. I should've never let this happen. ... I stopped it as soon as it started."
The victim wasn't in the courtroom but sent a private letter to Lancaster County District Judge Kevin McManaman. In it, he asked for a 15-year sentence so he wouldn't have to be scared to leave his house and see Gibbons or know her children could be bringing over friends who she could victimize.
In March 2017, the boy, then 16, told a school resource officer that Gibbons had sexually assaulted him when he was 15, according to an affidavit for her arrest.
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In a forensic interview, he said one day a year earlier he had heard Gibbons crying and, when he checked on her, she hugged and kissed him then performed a sex act on him.
He said he went to her house a day later and it happened again, the affidavit said.
Gibbons, 47, ultimately was arrested and pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual assault of a child.
Tuesday, she said thinking about what she did makes her ill with remorse. She said she's an alcoholic, and it never would've happened if she had been sober.
"I made a terrible mistake, and for that I have lost my children, my dignity and my reputation as a citizen, an artist, a mother. And I have suffered as a result of it. I am not a threat to anyone," Gibbons said.
Defense attorney Chad Wythers said Gibbons since has gotten in-patient treatment for her alcohol problem and has done everything she can to make sure it isn't a problem going forward. He asked for probation for the woman with an almost nonexistent criminal record before this.
But, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Charlie Byrd said, there was no guarantee she wouldn't relapse, and there had been no sex offender evaluation done to get at any underlying issues that may have led to it.
"Everyone has just jumped to the conclusion that alcoholism is what caused it," the prosecutor said. "And without that, your honor, it's just like rolling the dice. We don't know what's going to happen."
In the end, McManaman said he wasn't convinced by Gibbons' statement that the only reason the crime happened was because of her alcoholism and her emotional state.
It occurred twice, he said. The first time she was fully aware it was wrong and told the victim not to tell anyone. The second time happened after she had time to reflect on what she had done.
"This was a choice," the judge said.
The victim wasn't old enough to buy beer, drive a car or even go to an R-rated movie. He was vulnerable, naive and innocent, McManaman said.
Now, McManaman said, the boy's mother has to deal with an uncomfortable, unjustified, inexcusable feeling that somehow she had something to do with this or shares in the blame.
"I'm here to declare she has absolutely no blame for what happened to her son. You do," he said, sending Gibbons to prison for 10 to 15 years.
She turned back to look at her supporters, crying, before deputies escorted her out of the courtroom.