Roxie Merriman wishes people would focus as much on what was done to Sarah Gonzales-McLinn as they do on how Gonzales-McLinn murdered her rapist. 

“I think we should put that much effort into looking into what was done to her, because it had to have been horrible,” Merriman said. 

Gonzales-McLinn was 19 years old when she killed Harold “Hal” Sasko, who managed Cici’s Pizza franchises in Lawrence and Topeka, in January 2014. A jury convicted Gonzales-McLinn of first-degree murder in 2015 without knowing about the abuse she endured, and she was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 50 years before she would be eligible for parole.

Merriman was cellmates with her in the Topeka Department of Corrections for about a year around 2019. 

Merriman didn’t see firsthand what happened to Gonzales-McLinn in the time that she lived with Sasko, but she did see and hear the way the traumatic past still haunted Gonzales-McLinn as she slept, years later. 

Gonzales-McLinn would kick, thrash, scream “no” and “stop,” and cry in her sleep, Merriman said. 

“At first, I would try to wake her up. She wouldn’t wake up — it was like she was stuck,” Merriman told a crowd of about 30 people at the Lawrence Public Library Monday evening. “That went on nightly for Sarah. And I finally gave up on trying to wake her up. Nothing I could do about that for her.” 

Gonzales-McLinn did cut Sasko’s throat. No one was denying that, said Dave Ranney, a former reporter and advocate leading the movement for Gov. Laura Kelly to grant Gonzales-McLinn clemency. 

But evidence of Sasko’s regular abuse — isolating Gonzales-McLinn from her family, holding her in sexual and financial servitude, and making her believe that if she left his home she would be homeless and alone — was never provided to the jury that convicted her.

“She wanted out, but she didn’t think there was a way out,” Merriman said. “I just wish people would stop and think about what had been done to her for her to have so much hatred, so much anger, and that much fear in her heart.” 

As a woman, the shame of a man doing things like that to you can be “the most overpowering thing ever,” Merriman said. 

“You blame yourself; you think, ‘What could I have done for someone to think that this is OK?’ Things like that,” Merriman said.

Sasko broke his promises and preyed on Gonzales-McLinn, Merriman said. And Sasko was not the first man to violate Gonzales-McLinn; she was also molested by a neighbor at a young age, and raped and burned with a cigarette at age 16. 

Merriman said she wants people to know that “Sarah has the purest heart of anyone I’ve probably ever known.” She said Gonzales-McLinn didn’t brag about her crime, as many of the women in the Topeka prison do, and she took no pride in it. 

“If Sarah were to get clemency, I think — I know, I don’t think, I know — that she would show the world that people can heal from trauma; that their trauma does not have to define them for the rest of their lives or cause them to do things that will affect them forever,” Merriman said. 

Gonzales-McLinn was resentenced under unusual circumstances in 2021 when her post-conviction attorney and Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez came to an agreement. Her sentence was reduced to a minimum of 25 years before she’d be parole-eligible. But she won’t have a new trial, so there’s no chance of convincing a jury that she had killed to escape an abusive situation, as some advocates had hoped.

There’s little hope that the new sentence will make much of a difference, Ranney told the crowd. Gonzales-McLinn could still spend 30, 40 or 50 years in prison. 

Ranney — and his co-presenter, Sharon Sullivan, executive director of IPPI STARS (International Public Policy Institute Stop Trafficking and Reject Slavery) and professor emerita at Washburn University — think the 10 years Gonzales-McLinn has already spent behind bars is enough for justice. 

Sullivan said Gonzales-McLinn has taken one of her online classes, and she’s very smart and very articulate in her writing. 

“She’s also a survivor of unspeakable sustained trauma, which has a long-term impact on the brain,” Sullivan said. “So how do we define justice for abused women? We’re saying 10 years is enough. Ten years is enough.” 

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gonzales-McLinn also said that “with a great deal of psychological certainty,” Gonzales-McLinn has achieved rehabilitation and is very capable of maintaining a crime-free, productive life. 

For more information, Ranney encouraged people to read a January 2023 article by Sherman Smith of Kansas Reflector, which Ranney said is “pretty much the definitive story on Sarah.” That’s available at this link. Read more Lawrence Times and Kansas Reflector articles on Gonzales-McLinn’s case at this link.

Advocates are encouraging people to reach out to Gov. Laura Kelly’s office via email at correspondence@ks.gov or by mail at Constituent Services, Kansas Statehouse, 300 SW 10th Ave., Room 264W, Topeka, KS 66612-1590. 

There is no set timeline for when the governor must answer an application for clemency — she actually doesn’t have to answer at all, Ranney said.

A second informational session is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 22 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library auditorium, 1515 SW 10th Ave. in Topeka. The event is open to the public, but content will not be suitable for children, according to advocates.

See Gonzales-McLinn’s December 2022 application for clemency below.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show Gonzales-McLinn’s earliest possible release date as Feb. 1, 2039 — just short of 15 years minimum remaining. She would be 44 years old.

Clemency is her last chance to be free sooner than that. 

Sarah-Gonzales-McLinn-clemency-application-r

Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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