Plymouth teen in kill plot drops appeal for new trial
Roksana Sikorski, the Plymouth Township teenager who pleaded guilty to plotting to kill her family nearly three years ago, withdrew her appeal Friday for a new trial.
Sikorksi, now 18, pleaded guilty in March 2016 to taking part in a plan to kill her adopted parents and her younger siblings in the family’s home. The teen was 15 at the time when she and her then adult boyfriend hatched the plot.
Sikorski is serving 10-20 years at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility for the crime. The teen’s parents have contended she was influenced by her former boyfriend, Michael Rivera, now 26, who is serving a life sentence for the crime.
Five hearings were held in Wayne County Circuit Court on Sikorski’s bid to get a new trial. She appeared via video Friday before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hathaway to withdraw her appeal.
“It’s been her decision,” said Sikorski’s appellate attorney, Jacqueline Ouvry. “She decided she no longer wanted to go forward.”
The teen’s parents have said the girl’s trial attorney should not have allowed her to plead guilty.
That attorney, Matthew Evans, testified in February during a hearing before Hathaway on her appeal for a new trial, saying: “I told (Roksana Sikorski) she should take the deal” because there was a “significant chance” of the teen being convicted. Evans said he would not be able to mount a “duress” defense, adding she took part in the plot because she was pressured by the ex-boyfriend.
Police said Rivera sent texts instructing Sikorski to attack family members: “ ... stab like ... ur (sic) cutting a tomato.”
Sikorski stabbed her younger brother and fled out a window after her younger sister screamed after witnessing the attack. The teen pleaded guilty to assault with intent to murder just before she was to go to trial.
During her sentence, the teen’s mother asked for leniency for her daughter.
Laurene Sikorski told Wayne County Circuit Judge James Callahan that “Roxie was misled and used” by her older boyfriend, who was 22 at the time of the attack.
“Nothing will benefit this child by sending her to jail,” Laurene Sikorski said. “She made some poor choices, which led her to this conviction.”
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