Mother of Missing Oakville Girl Faces Up to 20 Months in Prison After Accepting Plea Deal
Apr. 8—Jordan Bowers, the biological mother of missing 5-year-old Oakville girl Oakley Carlson, entered Alford pleas Friday to two counts of child endangerment with a controlled substance, allowing her to take advantage of a plea deal without admitting guilt.
Bowers faces 15 to 20 month jail sentences on each charge.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on April 22.
She had been accused, alongside Carlson's father, Andrew Carlson, of exposing their 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to methamphetamine. Bowers had also been charged with felony second-degree abandonment of a dependent child, which will be dropped as part of the plea deal.
Bowers had been scheduled to stand trial alone on April 19 for all three charges.
None of the charges are related to Oakley.
In her written statement on her decision to plead guilty, which was read by Grays Harbor County Superior Court Judge Dave Edwards during Bowers' hearing on Friday, Bowers wrote she took the plea deal because there was "a significant likelihood" she would be convicted if the prosecutor presented its evidence to a jury.
Carlson pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment with a controlled substance on March 14 and was sentenced March 28 to 12 months in prison — the maximum allowed by state law for his case.
Prosecutors reportedly presented Bowers with the same plea deal as Carlson, but at the time she "was not inclined to take it," according to a statement by Deputy Prosecutor Jason Walker.
Had Bowers not pleaded guilty, she would have had a trial confirmation hearing on Monday, April 11.
Bowers' sentencing range is higher than Carlson's because Bowers has a higher criminal offender score, which is calculated from past offenses on a defendant's record and is used by judges to set sentencing for new offenses.
The prosecutor's office will recommend a 15-month sentence for Bowers, but Edwards said "the court is not obligated to follow that recommendation."
The sentencing judge is limited by state law to the 15 to 20 month standard sentencing range for Bowers' case.
Bowers has been in custody on $150,000 bail since her arrest on Dec. 6.
No Updates on Investigation Into Oakley's Disappearance
Bowers and Carlson are both suspects in the disappearance of their 5-year-old daughter but neither face charges related to Oakley.
As of March 1, there was nothing new to report on the search for Oakley, according to a statement made by Grays Harbor Undersheriff Brad Johansson to The Daily World.
"Investigators are still trying to determine exactly what happened to Oakley and who is responsible," Johansson wrote to The Daily World in March. "With Oakley not being found this makes the case even more difficult. Based on the outcomes of this investigation, there could be several criminal charges that would apply."
Anyone with information related to Oakley's disappearance is asked to call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office's non-emergency dispatch number at 360-533-8765, call Detective Sgt. Paul Logan at 360-964-1729 or email sodetectives@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.
