KEMMERER — A Kemmerer woman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, June 5. Cheri Marler, 52, was convicted on May 10 of killing 5-year-old Annabelle Noles, whom she was babysitting when the young girl died in November 2022. She said she plans to appeal her conviction.

Following brief instructions, the nearly 90-minute hearing began with a plea from Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred to Third District Court Judge Joseph B. Bluemel.

“This little girl suffered,” Allred told the court. “This 5-year-old girl suffered. Her life was taken away by the defendant.”

Allred said he wasn’t going to go over the extensive evidence and expert witness testimony the jury heard during the weeklong trial last month, making his argument brief, but clear.

“That level of violence, that level of suffering that that little girl [endured] … calls for the harshest punishment available,” Allred said before asking Bluemel to impose a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Marler was convicted last month of killing Annabelle Noles. Experts detailed in court weeks-old bruising and fresher injuries found on Noles after she died on Nov. 25, 2022. Marler initially admitted hitting the young child several times during a recorded interview with Kemmerer police.

“I smacked her too hard,” Marler said in the interview. Later, she told the court that her confession was coerced and that police lied to her multiple times while she was being interviewed the night Noles died.

Noles was in Marler’s care after the child’s mother, Kayla Kartchner, arranged through Facebook for Marler to babysit the child. Kartchner, who testified that she was a heavy marijuana user at the time, left Noles with Marler for several weeks, only visiting a few times and only seeing her daughter when Marler brought her to Arctic Circle, where Kartchner was working at the time.

Marler told investigators that Noles fell down the stairs the day she died and had previously injured herself while playing on a swingset.

The jury, however, didn’t buy it. After hearing from several medical experts, who detailed Noles’ injuries, including a broken back, bleeding on her brain and extensive old and new bruising, they convicted her of first-degree murder and child abuse.

During last week’s hearing, several people spoke in favor of a more merciful sentence. All of them were members of Marler’s family.

A common theme among the speakers supporting Marler was how she’d been abused in the past and had suffered with addiction in the past. In addition, even though she’d been incarcerated several times in her earlier years, she’s been clean and sober for nearly two decades.

Speakers also detailed some of Marler’s medical ailments. She’s had multiple back surgeries and hip replacements, among other diagnoses and doesn’t work because of those disabilities.

Her children said how she could never hurt anyone — “not even a butterfly,” her youngest child, Michael Thomas, told the court.

“She taught me hard work and determination at a very young age and that went on through my adulthood,” Thomas said.

Steven Holcomb, Marler’s brother, also spoke in favor of a lenient sentence.

“She’s been a person that I’ve never really cared for,” Holcomb said of his sister, adding, however,  that none of Marler’s chargers make sense to him. “Never, ever, has she ever been violent — physically, or in any way shape or form,” he said.

Kartchner, in a letter to the court, asked Bluemel to sentence Marler to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Marler briefly addressed the court, mostly saying how unwell she is, and indicating that she plans to appeal her conviction. She’s maintained her innocence throughout her prosecution after saying a recorded confession was coerced.

Bluemel said he considered many things and multiple different punishments. However, he sided with the state, and sentenced Marler to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder conviction.

Although the state was seeking 8-10 years for the child abuse conviction, Bluemel said he didn’t think that crime deserved the maximum allowable punishment and sentenced her to 5-8 years instead. Both sentences will run concurrently.