Highland woman’s appeal denied after running over boyfriend
The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected Raquel McCormick’s bid to reduce her sentence for striking and killing her boyfriend.
McCormick, 52, was sentenced in October 2023 to a 20-year split sentence, with 17 years in prison and three more in Lake County Community Corrections.
She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in July 2022, proceeded with a mental competency bid, then tried to scuttle her plea when the court ruled she was competent to stand trial.
In a 3-0 decision, Appeals Judge Rudolph Pyle wrote Wednesday that Judge Samuel Cappas sentenced her within legal guidelines and didn’t abuse his discretion by rejecting various mitigators in her favor to soften her prison sentence. Some of the factors, McCormick did not argue at sentencing, Pyle said.
“She ran over a drunk man, which is what it boils down to,” Cappas said at her sentencing.
McCormick allegedly hit Thomas Brankin, 53, with an SUV on Aug. 11, 2020 after an argument in a parking lot behind Wine House, her downtown Highland business, according to an affidavit. He died weeks later on Sept. 1.
