A woman who violated her probation by cutting her boyfriend with a knife will serve her sentence of four years in Kosciusko County Community Corrections as long as she resides in a residential rehabilitation home.

Jenna R. Parks, 33, Warsaw, pleaded guilty April 19 in Kosciusko County Superior Court I to domestic battery, a level 5 felony, and admitted to violating her probation.

Thursday, Kosciusko County Superior Court I Judge David Cates revoked Parks’ probation and sentenced her to two years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, giving her credit for 244 days served, for probation violation; and two years in IDOC for domestic battery.

The terms will be served consecutively, but Cates said he had no objection to her serving those through Community Corrections as long as she resides in a rehab home, like Rose Home or Serenity House. She also must pay the domestic violence fee of $50, pay the cost of the court action and not possess a gun.

“Show me that what I’m hearing today is not just talk,” Cates said, adding that if she did he would consider modifying her sentence.

On April 28, 2017, Warsaw police were dispatched to a fight at the Victory Hotel, 223 W. Jefferson St. The first WPD officer saw a woman, later identified as Parks,  walking east down the nearby alley. Officers realized she was the suspect in the fight and stopped her to talk to her. They found her with a black pocket knife with a blood stain on it.

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Officers also identified the other participant in the fight, which was her boyfriend and roommate at Victory Hotel. He had suffered a 3-inch cut to the lower left leg, which was close to the bone. He said he received the wound while he was lying on the bed after he and Parks argued and it turned violent. He said Parks came at him and he raised his feet when the injury occurred. He was taken to Kosciusko Community Hospital for treatment.

During the sentencing hearing Thursday, Parks’ defense attorney, Joseph A. Sobek, called Bill Fawley, director of All Things New, a residential rehabilitation program for women.

Fawley said Parks was enrolled in the program for about seven months.

“I’m here because I don’t want the court to be under the impression that she wasted her time there,” Fawley said. During her time, he said Parks made substantial progress on her path to battling her addiction. She passed all her drug screens and was a very hard worker in the program.

When Sobek asked why Parks was removed from the program, Fawley said it came down to personality. “She’s a nonconformist and very proud of it. She ran out of patience with us, and we ran out of patience with her,” he said, but she did become committed to the truth, which in part led her to plead guilty to the charges she faced.

While in jail, Fawley said, Parks’ progress continued as she led a Bible study and wrote encouraging letters to the residents of All Things New.

“I believe she is on a path that is sustainable,” Fawley said, calling her smart, sharp and very capable with a lot of potential.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Brad Voelz said he appreciated the progress Parks made, but she did attack and hurt a person.

“I’ve rarely seen cases where so many members of the community wrote letters of support. But so many were from people from a structured, oversight program. It seems Parks succeeds in a program but fails on her own,” Voelz said.

Parks told the court she apologized for the choices she made that put her there.

“I’m ready to rehabilitate and I’m ready to put blood, sweat and tears into it to make sure that happens,” she said, thanking her mentors for their support.

“I know it’s a long journey ahead.”

Cates told her, “It appears to me you are taking sobriety seriously and are taking steps in that direction, and I give you credit for that.”

But, he said, “A basic rule of probation is that you don’t commit further crimes. You violated that rule by attacking someone with a weapon.”