Runaway Bride Wilbanks Receives Probation In Plea Deal

Jennifer Wilbanks arrived at the courthouse Thursday morning dressed casually, with her hair in a new short bob and her jilted fiancée by her side. The 32-year old Wilbanks, the infamous runaway bride who faked her own abduction, strode past a crowd of reporters with no comment. When it came her time to speak in the courtroom, she faced the judge and wept as she said, "I’m truly sorry for my actions and I just want to thank Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth."

The apology was what hundreds of people in the suburb of Atlanta had been waiting for since the last week of April, when the 32-year old Wilbanks disappeared without a trace just days before her wedding. After being indicted with one felony count of making a false report and a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement, Wilbanks reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charge if the felony charge was dropped. She could have received a sentence of six years in prison and up to $11,000 in fines if convicted of both charges, but as a result of the plea deal, Judge Ronnie Batchelor sentenced her to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service. He also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550. That amount is in addition to the $13,250 she previously agreed to pay the city of Duluth, to defray some of the overtime costs incurred by police and other authorities searching for her in vain.

On April 26, Wilbanks vanished from the home she shared with Mason, cut her hair, and climbed on a bus to Las Vegas and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her disappearance sparked a massive manhunt, with officials and family members searching for days, fearing the worst. Three days after she went missing, Wilbanks called police and claimed she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. After questioning, however, she recanted her story and said that she fled because of the stress of her upcoming wedding. Wilbanks could also have been ordered to reimburse authorities for the full cost of the search, which has been put at more than $50,000.

According to Wilbanks’ lawyer, Lydia Sartain, the sentence was a fair one. "She’s done everything that we would ask of her. She has accepted responsibility." District Attorney Danny Porter is also satisfied with the decision, calling the plea "a good resolution of the matter under all of the facts of the case and taking into consideration Ms. Wilbanks' prior criminal record." Wilbanks was convicted of shoplifting during the 1990s. After the judge handed down his sentence, the attorneys for both sides approached the bench as Wilbanks sat alone at the defense table, sobbing quietly and hugging herself. John Mason, the man she was supposed to have married on April 30, sat several rows behind her, watching in silence. When Wilbanks’ lawyer returned to the defense table to escort her out a back door of the courtroom, she left without looking at her former fiancé or even speaking to him. Mason has said on several occasions that he still wants to marry Wilbanks, but no public statement has been made to that effect. The family members of the two have had no comment.