An Oklahoma County judge has reduced the prison sentence of Tyler Jenicek, the Oklahoma City driver who struck and killed pedestrian Percilla Cheadle in 2020 while driving 80 miles per hour and then fled the scene. At a judicial review hearing earlier this week, Jenicek's two six-year prison terms were each cut to five years, News 9 reported on November 5 — a decision the victim's daughter says was effectively made before the family was heard.

Source: News 9 (KWTV), Oklahoma City

Cheadle was crossing a street in northwest Oklahoma City in 2020 when Jenicek hit her at 80 mph and did not stop. She died of her injuries. Her daughter, Leeanna Pannell, told News 9 she waited four years for a conviction in her mother's death, and was shocked by the outcome of this week's hearing: 'That shouldn't have been an option for him.'

Jenicek's sentence had two parts: a 21-year suspended sentence with six years to serve in prison for manslaughter and hit-and-run, and a 10-year suspended sentence with six years to serve for DUI and eluding police. The judge reduced both prison terms by one year, to five years each. Court records cited by News 9 also show that while Jenicek was out on bond for the fatal hit-and-run, he was charged again with DUI and eluding police.

'It was already sealed in the deal'

Jenicek's attorney had filed a motion for judicial review of the sentence. According to court documents reported by News 9, the filing pointed to Jenicek's good behavior in custody, his completion of addiction and educational classes, and his church attendance. Pannell said the judge asked several questions of both the prosecutor and the defense before signing — at one point asking, as Pannell recalled it: 'Is there a reason why this time offering is so low?' 'She questioned it before she signed it,' Pannell said. 'Exactly, judge, I want to know the same thing.'

'It was already sealed in the deal,' Pannell said. 'Like they already made their decision of how this was going to go.' She added that she is not convinced Jenicek's time in prison will prevent him from harming someone else when he is released: 'I fought every step of the way and that shouldn't — that's crazy. A person should not have to endure that when I'm already enduring the death of my mother.'

The hearing puts a recurring Oklahoma tension on display: a judicial-review system designed to reward rehabilitation running into a family that waited four years for a conviction in the first place. The case also underlines the repeat-DUI risk on metro roads — Jenicek was charged with DUI again while on bond in the very case in which a woman died — on the same Oklahoma City street network crossed daily by commuters and by truck traffic moving between the I-35 and I-40 corridors.

Jenicek remains in custody serving the reduced terms. The suspended portions of his sentences — 21 years and 10 years — do not disappear with the reduction: under Oklahoma practice, violating the conditions attached to a suspended sentence after release can bring the suspended time back before the court. News 9 did not report any statement from the district attorney's office on the ruling, and no further hearing date has been announced.