Staff Writer| The Pueblo Chieftain
Chieftain file photo
Donna Yaklich appears in Pueblo District Court last summer for a sentence reduction hearing.
Pueblo will draw a ray of the national spotlight Tuesday with the 8 p.m. airing of a CBS made-for-TV movie, "Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story."
How the community and the story will be depicted remained unknown Friday. CBS wasn't sharing its previews locally.
And Pueblo Deputy Police Chief Ron Gravatt would not release his copy of the script.
But for some people who lived the story and were involved in the movie-making, it already has provoked strong emotions: Anger that Ms. Yaklich had the movie made; hope by her and her supporters that it will help her cause.
Last fall, a CBS publicist characterized the movie as depicting the life of a battered woman who desperately sought a way out of her marriage to a bullying giant of a law officer. She hired two men to kill him.
Yaklich, a longtime Pueblo narcotics officer, died Dec. 12, 1985, from shotgun blasts in his driveway as he returned to his Avondale home from work. He was 38.
Ms. Yaklich was sentenced on July 30, 1988, to 40 years in prison for her part in his killing. A jury found her guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Two of the Yakliches' neighbors - Charles Greenwell, who was 16 at the time, received a 20-year prison sentence; and his brother Eddie, then 25, who received 30 years - actually fired the 12-gauge shotgun that killed Yaklich.
Ms. Yaklich's case continues in the courts.
In July, she appeared before District Judge Eugene Halaas at a daylong sentence reduction hearing that drew statewide media attention. At least two books are being written about her story.
She and several professionals, including a local probation officer, spoke of how Ms. Yaklich's sentence should be reduced because she was a victim of battered-woman's syndrome, and how she had been rehabilitated.
She said more time in prison only will harden her, making her unfit to ever re-enter society.
Her son, Dennis Jr., then 13 years old, testified about how he needs his mother in his life.
Ms. Yaklich, a prisoner in the Department of Correction's Colorado Women's Facility near Canon City, has worked in the system's Shape Up Program about six hours a day for some time.
Her stay there has also been noteworthy, say prison officials.
She meets with young women, telling them the "importance of making good decisions as opposed to bad ones," DOC spokeswoman Liz McDonough said.
Ms. Yaklich did not respond to a request for an interview.
Her mother, who lives in Pueblo West, did not return calls.
One of her lawyers, Stanley Marks of Denver, and Ms. McDonough said Ms. Yaklich was not granting interviews.
Marks said Ms. Yaklich was waiting for Halaas' ruling on her request for a sentence reduction.
Ms. McDonough's first reaction when contacted recently about Ms. Yaklich was one of frustration.
"I'll sure be glad when this movie is over," she said, explaining that the movie has generated numerous media requests.
Ms. McDonough is surprised that none of them has come from outside the state, but added that might be due to the fact that movies about women who kill their abusive husbands or have them killed are not new to viewers.
While CBS would not answer questions about who will profit from the movie, Ms. McDonough explained that a recent Supreme Court ruling made it legal for prisoners to profit from the sale of books or movies about their crime.
However, she said a Colorado law allows for the state attorney general "to go after" an inmate's assets to pay for his or her incarceration.
She said the DOC allowed Ms. Yaklich to enter into the film contract allowing for profits to go to her son.
"Then it can't be touched," Ms. McDonough said.
Generally, Ms. Yaklich will be eligible for parole after she serves 15 to 17 years. An inmate's parole date can change because they can earn up to 10 days a month off their sentence for being good prisoners.
Ms. Yaklich's parole date is November 2006, according to Ms. McDonough.
District Attorney Gus Sandstrom said several media members have asked to speak with him about the movie.
So far, Sandstrom said he has granted only two - one because Yaklich's older brother, Eddie Y. Eldon, asked him.
Sandstrom always is quick to defend the slain officer.
He said he never saw any proof that Ms. Yaklich was battered, even though he sometimes saw her daily during his first four years in office.
In fact, Sandstrom said, Ms. Yaklich's defense theory that she lashed out at her husband because she feared for her life was not raised until her second trial. (Her first ended in mistrial.)
"I think it was a convenient defense," Sandstrom said.
He said Yaklich often was friendly to suspects during drug busts in which Sandstrom sometimes participated.
"He would joke with people, laugh with them," Sandstrom said, adding that Yaklich often would let people come to the station the next day instead of taking them from their homes.
But, Sandstrom said, Yaklich liked to portray a tough image.
"He wanted to be intimidating, wanted that reputation, so that he would not have to be intimidating," Sandstrom said.
