Florida Woman Acquitted In Stepfather-Turned-Husband's Murder Sentenced For Evidence Tampering
A Florida woman acquitted of killing her stepfather-turned-husband received one year of probation for tampering with evidence after cleaning up the bloody crime scene.
Danielle Redlick, 48, was acquitted in June of killing her husband Michael Redlick after claiming she had stabbed the University of Central Florida official in self-defense during a heated argument. However, the jury still held her responsible for her actions after the fatal act, convicting her of tampering with evidence for trying to clean up the blood and move the body, WOFL reports.
Danielle was sentenced Friday to 364 days behind bars, but was credited for time served. She’ll serve 12 months of probation.
But not everyone was happy that Danielle would be coming home.
The Redlicks' teenage daughter unsuccessfully requested that the judge bar her mother from having contact with her children, saying through a statement read by her guardian ad litem, attorney Cheney Mason, that she was afraid of the woman, according to WESH.
“You may all be fooled by the incredible mask this woman presents to you all, but I am not. My father did not get away in time, and I am so worried for my brother,” she wrote in the letter. “Judge, please make some kind of stipulation that Danielle not be allowed near myself or (my brother).”
She went on to say that she feared being murdered by her mother and struggled with depression, paranoia and nightmares after her father’s death, according to a series of tweets from Orlando Sentinel reporter Monivette Cordeiro.
“I lost everything at once and it was broadcast to the world,” Mason read from the letter as Redlick looked on in tears.
Despite the teen’s plea, the judge opted not to put a no-contact order in place or institute alcohol prohibition restrictions that the prosecutors had advocated for during sentencing.
Danielle testified during the trial that she had killed her husband after he had pinned her against a kitchen island during a heated argument between the pair.
“He was suffocating me. I couldn’t breathe and he had me pinned down,” she testified, according to previous testimony from WESH, telling the jury that he often got violent when he had too much to drink. “I was scared — I was in fear for my life. I thought he had snapped, and I could die.”
Yet, prosecutors said Danielle had waited 11 hours to call 911 and initially told authorities she thought her husband had died of a heart attack, WKMG reports.
During that time, Danielle had tried to clean up the bloody crime scene and spent time on a dating site, prosecutors said at trial according to Law & Crime.
When detectives finally arrived at the family’s Winter Park home, they found a strong smell of bleach, along with bloody towels, a bloody mop and bloody fingerprints in the house, WEAR-TV reports.
Michael and Danielle first began their relationship as stepfather and stepdaughter, after Michael married Danielle’s mother when his stepdaughter was about 22 years old. After her mother died, she testified on the stand, a romance soon bloomed between her and Michael.
“I was a bartender at night and he started coming up to all the shifts I was working, and just visiting with me,” she said, according to WESH. “I grew to enjoy it. He was kind of worldly, smart. These were new and exciting things for me.”
The couple went on to have two children together and had been married for 15 years when Michael was killed.
He had been the director of external affairs and partnership relations for the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida.
