A former model convicted of killing three men in 2005 as she sped her car through an intersection in a suicide attempt, was released from prison Thursday, after serving only half of an eight-year sentence.
Jeanette Sliwinski, 25, was paroled early Thursday. The exact time and location of her release had been kept secret in the days leading up to it, after the Illinois Department of Corrections received threats against her safety.
A spokesman for the department said those threats are under investigation.
Sliwinski was found guilty in October 2007 of killing three musicians when her car rammed into theirs at a Skokie intersection on July 14, 2005. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder. But in sentencing her in 2007, Judge Garritt Howard found her guilty of reckless homicide, a lesser charge.
At her sentencing last year, Scott Meis, 27, the younger brother of victim Douglas Meis, said, "It's just kind of ridiculous. Someone's going to walk away free after possibly two years -- a year and a half, two years -- in return for three innocent lives. Is that justice?"
As she was leaving that sentencing hearing, Rebecca Crawford, the widow of victim John Glick, 35, said, "We're all very distraught."
Loved ones of the victims reiterated those same sentiments last week when it was announced that Sliwinski was to be released.
Local
Michael Dahlquist, 39, was the third man killed in the crash.
