BELLEVILLE, Ill. --With help from a judge, David Kite got five years in prison and a life partner. After sentencing Kite on Wednesday to prison for stealing a lawnmower from a home, St. Clair County Circuit Judge John Baricevic obliged the 23-year-old man's request and married him to girlfriend Victoria Smith in the same courtroom.
The groom sported an orange jumpsuit, shackles and handcuffs during the five-minute civil ceremony; the bride had on a T-shirt and sweat pants.
A day later, Baricevic described the short ceremony as polite, with no visible grudge toward him by the lovestruck man he'd just punished with prison.
Kite had just pleaded guilty to a felony theft count and was ordered imprisoned when Kite asked for a furlough to marry Smith, promising to surrender to begin serving his sentence afterward. A prosecutor objected, and Baricevic denied the request.
"Usually to grant a furlough, it has to be an emergency situation. I didn't think marriage was," the judge said.
Moments later, Kite and Smith said they wanted to get married immediately.
So with Kite in a holdover cell, Smith hustled to the county clerk's office and filled out a marriage license the clerk brought over for Kite to sign.
Ooooh, lucky, LUCKY Victoria! You get yer man, honey :-D *happy sigh* I do SO love a good luv story... (Didn't she know Federline was available?)
ReplyDeleteHey, maybe he was just being sweet and didn't want Victoria's yard to look sloppy?
It's possible.
Reminds me of my own wedding.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been one helluva lawn mower.
ReplyDeleteSO romantic. I feel all warm and tingly inside.
ReplyDeleteI feel all warm and tingly inside.
ReplyDeleteThen my work here is done.