3 days Ago
An elderly Santa Fe County woman on Wednesday pleaded no contest to charges of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in a 2021 shooting at her home that killed her husband and wounded another woman. Sheryl Graeb, 78 — who had faced a second-degree murder charge, along with counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and negligent use of a firearm — was ordered to serve five years of supervised probation. State District Judge Matthew Wilson suspended all but 40 months of a 15-year prison sentence for Graeb, time that included a firearm enhancement of three years for each of the two counts in her plea deal.
However, she will serve no jail time, Wilson said, because she received credit for the 40 months she already has served, first in jail and then on house arrest, since the July 2021 incident. Police and prosecutors have alleged Graeb shot her husband, 75-year-old Kenneth Graeb, late one night at their home after the couple had been heavily drinking with guests and while her unclothed husband was making advances toward another woman. The woman, a younger friend of the couple, was wounded by a gunshot.
Assistant District Attorney Tony Long said at her plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday the prosecution would have shown Graeb fatally shot her husband "as a result of sufficient provocation." In the more than three years since the incident had passed, the discovery phase, or evidence sharing process, was complete and the case was on track for trial, Long said, but some aspects — such as Sheryl Graeb's age and the likelihood her husband would be an "unsympathetic victim" for a jury — prompted the parties to negotiate a plea agreement. "In cases like this, there are times when a guaranteed resolution is undoubtedly in the best interest of justice," Long told the court.
Graeb appeared at the court hearing Wednesday, along with more than a dozen close friends and fellow church members who attended to support her. A pretrial services staffer at the District Court in Santa Fe said Graeb had adhered to the house arrest program after her release from jail, with zero violations of her conditions of release. Graeb gave a statement, telling the court she loved her husband — whom she was with for 27 years — "more than you could know.
" "We were blessed to share a wonderful, deep love, and I miss him every day," she told the court. "I know who I am. I have always had a great respect for all life, even to the smallest insect.
I would never intentionally hurt anyone and certainly not the love of my life." Prosecutors said Graeb, her husband and the friend, who was visiting the couple, had been drinking at the couple's home for hours with other guests before the shooting. Long described the get-together as "a party of a very prurient nature," noting almost everyone who was there was "unbelievably intoxicated.
" The friend — who escaped the home amid the shooting and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911 — suffered a gunshot wound to her shoulder. She told police Sheryl Graeb was the shooter, and that the three had been the only people in the house when the violence erupted. The woman later said she did not remember whether she had seen Graeb firing a gun.
Long said the woman would have been prosecutors' "star witness" in the case, and that she did not wish to see Graeb go to prison for the shooting. Graeb's attorney, Dan Cron, told the court she had no memory of anything that had happened from the time she went to bed that night — before the shooting — until the time she was awakened by a SWAT team that showed up at the house. Wilson accepted the plea deal and said it was "in the best interest of justice.
" "I can't imagine having to live with the fact of taking someone else's life that you care so much about," the judge told Graeb. "You will have to live with that for the rest of your life, but I wish you the best of luck." Three siblings of the late Kenneth Graeb appeared at the hearing via video, expressing they were devastated by their brother's death and the ensuing investigation.
The siblings learned about the fatal shooting from a news article, John Graeb said, and they struggled in the weeks after to reach investigating officers or prosecutors for information about the incident. Kenneth Graeb's remains were then released to his wife — who was accused of killing him — instead of family members, he said. "Since our brother's death, we have all suffered to some degree," he said.
"Our physical condition has degraded. Emotions have shut down, and happiness and optimism have vanished." Part of Sheryl Graeb's plea deal includes an agreement that she will not visit the location where her late husband is interred, at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, which had been a request from Kenneth Graeb's siblings.
"Other than a very, very brief time in jail, Sherry has been free at home to live her life without legal judgment until today," John Graeb said, "although the damage done to our family is irreparable.".
