An appeals court has rejected a woman’s request to vacate her three-year sentence, which she claimed was unfair, for dumping a man’s body in a conservation area near Richmond.
Theresa M. Stoen, 46, of Genoa City, Wisconsin, and Mikalah M. Stoen, 27, of Richmond, were both indicted in June 2022 on two counts of concealment of a death, a Class 4 felony.
The McHenry County Conservation District Police Department responded around 8 a.m. on April 29, 2022, to the North Branch Conservation Area, 11500 North Keystone Road in Richmond.
McHenry County Conservation District Police Chief Laura King told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that a staff member reported finding a deceased male subject near the entrance to the conservation area.
There were no signs of apparent injury on the man and he did not have any identification on him, King said at the time.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, Richmond Police Department and Richmond Township Fire Protection District also responded to the scene and assisted with the investigation alongside the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.
The man was identified as Alexander Oleston through investigative efforts.
State records show Oleston, who was 32 years old and a Richmond resident at the time of his death, was a convicted child sex offender.
Oleston was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Wisconsin when he was 21 and the victim was 14, records show.
The previous sex crime conviction against Oleston did not involve the two Stoens, King said.
Theresa Stoen and Mikalah Stoen, who are mother and daughter, told investigators they believed Oleston had died from a drug overdose.
It is unknown if he was dead at the time his body was transported to the conservation area. Oleston’s cause and manner of death are undetermined.
A grand jury indictment said that the Stoens transported Oleston’s body from an apartment in the 10600 block of North Main Street in Richmond the day before he was found.
The two defendants initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, court records show.
The Stoens entered into a blind plea agreement in May 2023 by pleading guilty to one of the two counts of concealment of a death.
The charge is a Class 4 felony and carries a sentence of one to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections but is also probationable.
McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis sentenced Theresa Stoen to three years in prison during a sentencing hearing in July 2023.
Oleston’s mother said in a statement at the hearing that the two women “took it upon themselves to play God, doctor and coroner” with her son’s life.
During a sentencing hearing in November 2023, Davis sentenced the younger Stoen to 180 days in jail, 30 months of probation and 200 public service hours.
Theresa Stoen later appealed her sentence in September 2023.
The woman argued the court abused its discretion in sentencing her to the maximum allowable sentence and said the sentence was “unduly harsh and violates Stoen’s 8th Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Theresa Stoen also said the court considered an improper factor in imposing the sentence and her sentence was disparate to the sentence of probation that her daughter received for the same offense.
Last month, over a year after the notice of appeal was filed, the Illinois Appellate Court for the Second District released its ruling on the matter.
The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s ruling in the sentencing and said that her sentence was not an abuse of the judge’s discretion.
The ruling said the mother should have exercised more judgment than her daughter when it came to handling Oleston’s death and that it was the mother’s idea to hide his body.
Records show Stoen was paroled from the Illinois Department of Corrections in July while her appeal was still pending. She is projected to be discharged from parole in January.