Jamie Silvonek, who admitted helping her soldier boyfriend murder her mother when she was 14, is seeking to have her 35-years-to-life sentence changed to a term that would allow her to leave prison much sooner.

With every other appeal option exhausted, Silvonek, now 24, is seeking commutation, a process that could eventually end with the governor of Pennsylvania signing her release papers.

If she’s successful, she’ll be one of the rare “lifers” to be granted an extraordinary second chance. Since 1971, when Pennsylvania’s current commutation process was put in place, only 355 of the 1,455 prisoners who made it before the state Board of Pardons had their petitions granted by the governor. Of those, only 15 were women.

In a Your View column published Tuesday in The Morning Call, Silvonek, the youngest female ever charged as an adult with homicide in Lehigh County, said she’s not daunted by those statistics.

“I believe in commutation because I believe that every human being is more than the worst decisions they’ve ever made,” she wrote.

Silvonek was in eighth grade in 2015 when she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Caleb Barnes, were charged with killing Cheryl Silvonek, 54, in the driveway of the Silvonek family’s Upper Macungie Township home.

Timeline: The ‘extraordinary case’ of Jamie Silvonek

At her guilty plea, Silvonek said Barnes choked and stabbed her mother after the trio returned home from a Breaking Benjamin concert in Scranton. Cheryl Silvonek had been trying to persuade the couple that their relationship should end due to their age differences, but agreed to allow her daughter to attend the concert if she chaperoned.

After the killing, Silvonek admitted, she watched Barnes bury her mother in a shallow grave then went with him to Walmart to buy bleach to clean up the crime scene. After finding Cheryl Silvonek’s body and blood-soaked car later that morning, police went to the Silvonek home and found the couple in Jamie Silvonek’s bedroom.

At Barnes’ trial, jurors read text messages between Silvonek and Barnes in which they plotted the killing. Barnes, an Army specialist and son of missionaries, was found guilty and sentenced in 2017 to life behind bars.

In her statement seeking commutation, Silvonek described meeting Barnes when she was 13 years old, and entering into an “all consuming whirlwind romance” that quickly soured into a “relationship that was physically, psychologically and sexually abusive.”

She said she froze while Barnes was attacking her mother, something she said she’ll never forgive herself for.

In her Your View, Silvonek said she is hoping commutation will allow her to spend the rest of her life on parole. Marsha Levick, chief legal officer of the Juvenile Law Center, which represented Silvonek through the appeal process, described the relief sought as a “less than” term.

Currently, Silvonek is not eligible for parole until 2049, when she’ll be 48 years old.

Levick said Silvonek wrote the Your View with the hope of showing her community the progress she’s made over the last decade. Since entering the maximum security Muncy State Prison in 2016, Silvonek has graduated from high school and completed online classes at Ohio University and Adams State University.

She’s attended therapy sessions, published a book of poems, worked as a tutor and guitar teacher, and trained two service dogs through a program that pairs inmates with puppies bound for the homes of disabled persons.

Levick said she hoped the Your View might also change the narrative about her client following years of intense news coverage.

“Jamie has never denied her involvement in her mother’s killing and has repeatedly acknowledged the grievous loss her death caused, for her family, friends and community,” Levick said.

“But Jamie was barely 14, on the cusp of adolescence, and was prosecuted as an adult in a system ill-suited to address her individual culpability, emotional and psychological immaturity or her developmental path toward adulthood,” she said. “With no prior delinquent or criminal record and a sterling academic record at her middle school, Jamie was unjustly denied the opportunity to be treated as the child she was.”

Silvonek’s crimes should have been addressed in the juvenile court system, Levick insisted, a point that was the basis of Silvonek’s post-conviction appeals that were rejected by appellate courts on both the county and state level.

Silvonek initially was charged as a juvenile with helping Barnes cover up her mother’s murder. However, deleted text messages recovered from her cellphone by investigators showed the pair plotting the killing, prompting then-Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin to charge Silvonek as an adult with homicide.

Current Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said his office would oppose Silvonek’s petition.

“Jamie Silvonek pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and other charges,” Holihan said in a statement. “She agreed that she conspired with her boyfriend to commit those crimes. She was sentenced to 35 years to life. We are opposed to her seeking clemency. She admitted to those charges and filed appeals that have all been denied. We have a system in place and she had her fair day in court. Our position is that she doesn’t deserve special treatment through the clemency process.”

At her guilty plea, Silvonek said “I was a monster,” and told a judge that Barnes did not force her to take part in the killing.

“I did it myself. No one made me do it. I wasn’t under the influence of anyone, or under any drug, or under anything, but my own selfishness,” Silvonek said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Silvonek has support on long road to commutation

There are two types of clemency available in Pennsylvania: a pardon, where a defendant’s crime is forgiven and removed from public records, and commutation, a reduction in sentence that does not erase the conviction. Silvonek is seeking the latter.

The commutation process for prisoners is lengthy and onerous. First they must submit a written application with supporting materials, such as character letters. The application is processed and investigated, then a panel of experts decides whether the inmate receives a public hearing.

At that hearing, victims and prosecutors may testify. If the five-member Board of Pardons agrees unanimously to grant the petition, it’s sent to the governor for final approval.

Just getting to the first step can take years. Silvonek filed her petition in May.

In her Your View, Silvonek said she’s grown as a person during her decade behind bars and wants to spend the rest of her life helping others and honoring her mother Cheryl Silvonek’s memory. She said she hoped to be able to leave prison so that she could take care of her father and grandmother, who have stood by her throughout her incarceration.

“It would mean everything to me to have the opportunity to care for them the way they’ve cared for me,” she wrote.

Her petition included 20 letters of support from family members, longtime friends, former teachers and prison staff. In his letter, David Silvonek, Jamie’s father, described his wife’s murder as a “devastating tragedy,” but said the crime did not define his daughter as a person.

“Over the past decade, Jamie has undergone a remarkable transformation. From the age of 14 to now, she has matured into a kind, responsible and compassionate young woman. I am incredibly proud of her growth and the positive influence she has had on others, even while incarcerated.”

David Silvonek said Wednesday that he speaks to his daughter by phone several times a week and visits her at least once a month. He said he’s proud of her academic achievements, noting that she’s published articles and has been asked to speak to groups about social justice and prison reform.

“I am totally amazed at how she has blossomed into a beautiful, smiling, caring and loving young woman having a positive disposition.”

He said he’s always believed that it was Barnes’ influence that caused Jamie to commit her crimes.

“She grew up in a warm family environment,” he said. “I know in my heart that this tragic event would not have happened had this individual not intruded on her life.”

David Silvonek said he already has a plan in place for his daughter’s arrival home. She would be greeted by loved ones who would help her find a job and continue her studies.

“She will be supported in getting acclimated back into society by reconnecting with those who know, love and support her,” he said. “Her potential to contribute positively to the community will never be realized fully within her present confinement. She has so much to offer to society.”

Silvonek’s maternal grandmother, Margaret Lynn, said she visits Silvonek frequently, usually three times a month, and chats with her often through a prison messaging app. In her letter to the board of parole, she promised that her granddaughter would have ample emotional and financial support to help her transition to life on the outside, including a college fund.

Silvonek’s quest for commutation is being championed by advocacy groups, including Philadelphia’s Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project.

Annie Ruhnke, director of mitigation at the project, urged the parole board to “weigh the impact of the influence an adult man had over” Silvonek, and allow the former Lehigh County woman to make good on her promise to spend the rest of her life honoring her mother’s memory.

“We don’t always have the opportunity to correct the injustices of our so-called justice system, but we hope this petition will prove an exception to that rule,” Ruhnke said.

Although the odds aren’t in her favor, Silvonek said the compassion she’s witnessed, even within a maximum security prison, allow her to hang onto the hope of being released early.

“According to reason, having faith in the commutation process is like having faith in the lottery,” she wrote. “But mercy transcends what reason dictates.”

Laurie Mason Schroeder is a freelance writer.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/02/jamie-silvonek-sentence-commutation-request/