Kaylee Sanders pleaded guilty to a third-degree assault charge during a plea hearing in front of Judge Jennilynn Lawrence on June 18.
The assault charge was the result of a fight in the Montezuma County Detention Center in March, where Sanders and co-defendant Abigayle Gray beat up another inmate, Sabrina Phillips. Phillips was “running her mouth,” according to statements from jail staff who were recorded in a police report written by Deputy Andrew Daulton.
Melinda Shishim, chief deputy district attorney from Mesa County, was present and provided a verbal account of the incident, which was recorded on surveillance footage inside the detention center. Shishim is prosecuting Sanders’ felony cases alongside Chief Deputy District Attorney David Waite, also from Mesa County.
The prosecution deferred to the court for sentence length, but did request that the sentence be served concurrent to the sentence that results from Sanders’ felony cases. The court sentenced the defendant to six months, with a 98-day credit for time served.
Sanders will be sentenced in the felony charges she faces in the murders of Morgan Salgado and Lewis Wall on Sept. 20. The sentencing range for these cases is 40 to 55 years.
