DRUG-CASE DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO PROBATION

Appearing without a lawyer, Jeanna Fandrich avoided prison at a court
hearing Wednesday, closing the final legal door on a criminal case
involving the deaths of her husband and two robbers at her rural
Blanchardville home last year.

Fandrich, who has changed her last name to Jones, was placed on two
years of probation by Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge William
Johnston, who withheld sentencing and added a host of conditions, one
of which limits her involvement in "romantic relationships."

Fandrich survived a drug-related break-in in March 2006 that left
three men dead. One of the three was her husband, Brad, who committed
suicide while under questioning from police for shooting and killing
two men who had broken into the home. It was Jeanna Fandrich who made
the call that alerted the Sheriff's Office to the shootings of the two
men.

The robbers' target was marijuana being grown in a secret room in the
basement of the home, a converted cheese factory. Jeanna Fandrich
pleaded guilty to a felony charge of being party to the crime of
running a drug house, admitting she knew her home was an indoor
marijuana-growing operation. She faced a maximum sentence of three
years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Her lawyer, Roger Merry, of Monroe, requested last week to withdraw
from the case. It was the second time he asked to leave the case, and
Wednesday before the hearing Johnston agreed to let him go. He refused
to comment later Wednesday, but told the court Fandrich was not
cooperating with him.

Lafayette County District Attorney Charlotte Doherty said Fandrich,
after close questioning from the judge, eventually waived her right to
a lawyer and said "she just wanted it to be over."

Fandrich, who initiated divorce proceedings in early 2006, will have
to follow several court-imposed restrictions and "disclose involvement
in any romantic relationships with her supervising agent."

Doherty said the state recommended the condition since Fandrich had
argued she was a victim of domestic violence.

The other survivor of the March 18, 2006, shooting is Erin Van Epps,
23. She was with her boyfriend, Jaeson C. Shepard and Eddie E. Harris,
the two men shot by Fandrich.

Van Epps pleaded guilty to felony burglary in the case and received
probation, three months of jail time with a stayed sentence of seven
years and six months. She is in the Iowa County jail serving a 20-day
sentence for drunken driving.