MONTGOMERY, AL – Will Dismukes, a former state representative, was sentenced on Monday and will not go to jail for his theft of property conviction.
Dismukes was sentenced to 22 years in prison by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Brooke Reid, but he was given five years in community corrections. The remaining 15 years will be suspended, and he will serve two years on probation. That means he will not be imprisoned.
Daryl Bailey, the District Attorney for Montgomery County, said he respects Reid’s decision but feels Dismukes should have been jailed since “this was the first time in Montgomery history that a Montgomery jury found an aggravator in a theft case.” Following the conviction, he sought prison time for the former lawmaker.
“This was a crime that deserved prison time. Mr. Dismukes abused his position to repeatedly steal thousands of dollars and enrich himself at the expense of others. He betrayed his employer’s, customers’, and the public’s trust,” Bailey said in a statement.
The defence attorneys for Dismukes said they were pleased with the sentencing.
“Most people charged with theft of property first, usually when they have no priors don’t serve any real jail time. And so in this case, state of Alabama was seeking prison time for him. We’re happy that Judge Reid’s sentencing was consistent with what we typically see for this kind of charge.” Alex Sallas, an associate attorney at Vickers & White, stated
In April, a jury found Dismukes guilty of stealing $32,000 from the Montgomery Veterans Administration Hospital and $4,800 from Prattville City Hall through his old job. The robbery took place between June 2016 and January 2018, before Dismukes ran for the government. After a complaint was filed in May 2020, an investigation was initiated.
“It’s not a good message. Obviously, when people steal this kind of money and then don’t admit their responsibility for it and try to hide it and cause a company to almost go out of business. And you’ve got to keep in mind too that he was doing this the whole time that his boss was going through cancer treatments. That’s an egregious part of this that a lot of people don’t know,” Bailey said.
Dismukes insists on his innocence and plans to fight his conviction.
From 2018 to 2022, he served in the Alabama House as a Republican, representing District 88.
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