Convicted Burglar Has Sentence Reduced By 10 Years

A burglar, who broke into a home and ransacked it while his partner sexually assaulted a young woman who lived there, recently got ten years shaved off his sentence.

A judge originally sentenced Billy Jo Rambo to 15 years, but after just a year behind bars, reduced it to five.

When someone enters a blind plea that means they plead guilty without cutting a deal with the DA. The downside is they don't know what sentence the judge will give them. The upside is they get to have their sentenced reviewed after a year in prison, and for Rambo, that turned out pretty well.

Billy Jo Rambo admits he's broken into around 20 homes. He got caught in January 2011 and was given probation.

Rather than taking that opportunity to change, just six months later, he and Robert Andrews, decided to do it again.

Rambo told police he and Andrews were sitting around talking about how they didn't like being broke, so they got a baseball bat and a metal pipe and came to Archer Park to find someone to rob. When they couldn't find anyone, they spotted a house.

They told police they knocked, but no one answered, so Rambo crawled in through an unlocked window and let Andrews inside.

While Rambo was ransacking the house, looking for things to steal, Andrews found a young woman asleep, forced her into a bathroom, threatened her with a hammer and sexually assaulted her.

In her victim statement she wrote in part, "I was so scared and afraid. It is a terrible nightmare for me. I wondered, ‘Why God, why me. I've done no harm to anyone.' After this, I thought my life was over."

Andrews was sent to prison for 35 years and Rambo for 15.

But, a year later, the judge reduced Rambo's sentence to five years in prison, the rest on probation.

The DA's office argued against it.

"When you have a situation that's totally out of your hands and things don't go the way you want them to go, it's absolutely frustrating," said Assistant DA Gary Davis.

Judge Kurt Glassco said in court when he changed Rambo's sentence that Rambo cooperated fully with police, gave a complete statement, gave up his partner and took responsibility by pleading guilty.

The department of corrections noted Rambo has had no issues in prison and recommended his sentence be modified. Rambo will be supervised for 10 years once he's released.