DARLINGTON - A Madison woman was sentenced to prison last week for setting up the armed robbery of a Darlington man by posing as a prostitute and for passing letters to her boyfriend while they were inmates together in the Lafayette County Jail.
Gisselle Louise Carlsen, 31, pleaded no contest Wednesday in Lafayette County Circuit Court to a Class E felony count of armed robbery, as a party to a crime, and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison followed by five years on extended supervision.
As part of her plea agreement, misdemeanor charges of theft and possession of marijuana and a controlled substance were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge could consider them in his sentencing.
She also pleaded no contest to a Class I felony count of delivering illegal articles to an inmate, with another count dismissed but read in, and she was sentenced to nine months, to be served consecutive to her other sentence.
The robbery and drug possession charges stem from an incident Sept. 18, 2014.
According to the criminal complaint and police reports:
A Darlington man found Carlsen on the website backpage.com and arranged for her to meet him at his Keep Street apartment to give him a $100 massage. He told police he and Carlsen had not discussed sex, but he assumed it was part of the deal. He told police he'd never done something like this before.
While the man was waiting outside for her, Carlsen's boyfriend, DeVonn H. Fraser, 28, Middleton, robbed him of cash at knifepoint and threatened to kill him, and then got in a getaway vehicle with Carlsen and Daniel R. Wood, 26, a homeless man they had hired to be their driver in exchange for gas money and a night in a hotel.
The robbery victim got in his car and pursued Wood's 1991 Pontiac Sunbird, calling 911 along the way. Police soon located the getaway vehicle and arrested Carlsen, Fraser and Wood.
As they were being arrested, Fraser said he knew was going to prison for a long time and asked police if he could say goodbye to his girlfriend, which they allowed. He told Carlsen he loved her and asked her to keep in touch. She began to cry.
About two weeks later, Carlsen got into trouble at the Lafayette County Jail for trying to pass letters to Fraser, in violation of jail rules and a court order that she have no contact with her co-defendants in the robbery case.
She tried to send a letter addressed from Fraser to a fake address in a Madison zip code, with the intention that the letter come back to Fraser as undeliverable.
"The letter was a six-page apology letter to DeVonn and included instructions to DeVonn to attempt to remove water from the toilets and talk to her through the toilets," a jail deputy noted.
Carlsen also told Fraser they should pass letters to each other through the jail library cart and instructed him to put his letters inside "The Road" and "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories for a Better World."
In February, Fraser pleaded guilty to a Class G felony count of theft in the robbery case and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and five years on extended supervision.
Wood, the alleged driver in the robbery, was granted a three-year deferred prosecution at a hearing in January.
In a statement to the court, the victim wrote that he lost $1,000 in the robbery and the incident left him shaken and scared of retribution.
Gisselle Louise Carlsen, 31, pleaded no contest Wednesday in Lafayette County Circuit Court to a Class E felony count of armed robbery, as a party to a crime, and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison followed by five years on extended supervision.
As part of her plea agreement, misdemeanor charges of theft and possession of marijuana and a controlled substance were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge could consider them in his sentencing.
She also pleaded no contest to a Class I felony count of delivering illegal articles to an inmate, with another count dismissed but read in, and she was sentenced to nine months, to be served consecutive to her other sentence.
The robbery and drug possession charges stem from an incident Sept. 18, 2014.
According to the criminal complaint and police reports:
A Darlington man found Carlsen on the website backpage.com and arranged for her to meet him at his Keep Street apartment to give him a $100 massage. He told police he and Carlsen had not discussed sex, but he assumed it was part of the deal. He told police he'd never done something like this before.
While the man was waiting outside for her, Carlsen's boyfriend, DeVonn H. Fraser, 28, Middleton, robbed him of cash at knifepoint and threatened to kill him, and then got in a getaway vehicle with Carlsen and Daniel R. Wood, 26, a homeless man they had hired to be their driver in exchange for gas money and a night in a hotel.
The robbery victim got in his car and pursued Wood's 1991 Pontiac Sunbird, calling 911 along the way. Police soon located the getaway vehicle and arrested Carlsen, Fraser and Wood.
As they were being arrested, Fraser said he knew was going to prison for a long time and asked police if he could say goodbye to his girlfriend, which they allowed. He told Carlsen he loved her and asked her to keep in touch. She began to cry.
About two weeks later, Carlsen got into trouble at the Lafayette County Jail for trying to pass letters to Fraser, in violation of jail rules and a court order that she have no contact with her co-defendants in the robbery case.
She tried to send a letter addressed from Fraser to a fake address in a Madison zip code, with the intention that the letter come back to Fraser as undeliverable.
"The letter was a six-page apology letter to DeVonn and included instructions to DeVonn to attempt to remove water from the toilets and talk to her through the toilets," a jail deputy noted.
Carlsen also told Fraser they should pass letters to each other through the jail library cart and instructed him to put his letters inside "The Road" and "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories for a Better World."
In February, Fraser pleaded guilty to a Class G felony count of theft in the robbery case and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and five years on extended supervision.
Wood, the alleged driver in the robbery, was granted a three-year deferred prosecution at a hearing in January.
In a statement to the court, the victim wrote that he lost $1,000 in the robbery and the incident left him shaken and scared of retribution.