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Jessica Lynn Alinsky gets up to 40 years for boyfriend’s murder; says she’s ‘remorseful for being wrongfully convicted’

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Times Leader Spring Career Fair set for April 26 at 109th Armory

<p>No, my eyes did not deceive me.</p><p>A group of about 30 or 40 people from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, several of them dressed like movie extras from &#8220;The Ten Commandments&#8221; or perhaps &#8220;The Robe,&#8221; came walking down South Washington Street in Wilkes-Barre last Sunday morning and &#8212; this was the really charming part &#8212; a young girl at the front of the procession was riding a little horse.</p><p>&#8220;What a great way to celebrate Palm Sunday,&#8221; was my first thought.</p><p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t I know about this sooner?&#8221; was my second.</p><p>A few days earlier, an editor had asked me to assign a Palm Sunday photo. That meant I should contact one church out of dozens of local possibilities and ask permission for a photographer to shoot a picture of the congregation marking this day, a day the Bible describes as &#8220;Jesus&#8217; triumphal entry into Jerusalem.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s a day, some preachers might tell you, to ponder how quickly public opinion can change, because soon after you read that biblical account of people yelling &#8220;Hosannah&#8221; and welcoming Jesus by placing palm branches in the path of the donkey he reportedly rode, the story takes a dark turn toward betrayal and painful death.</p><p>It&#8217;s also a day to think about humility, because a donkey is at the other end of the spectrum from a magnificent steed, a gleaming chariot or a Rolls Royce.</p><p>But a child who gets to ride a horse or donkey probably isn&#8217;t thinking about Hosannahs or humility, probably just &#8220;Hooray, this is the best Sunday School lesson ever.&#8221;</p><p>When I wrote out the photo assignment, I didn&#8217;t know about Good Shepherd&#8217;s plan to have Ruth Ann Sweeney, of Greentown, bring her miniature horse &#8212; he&#8217;s actually not a donkey, she told me, though to my eyes he played the role of one very well &#8212; to downtown Wilkes-Barre for a procession.</p><p>So I chose another church, the parish of St. Andre Bessette, out of the list of possibilities and they were kind enough to let our photographer into their Saturday evening Mass where he shot photos of their pastor blessing palm branches and parishioners holding branches.</p><p>All very nice, but when I turned a corner and almost ran into the miniature horse procession, I wished I had assigned a photo of that, too.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the ironic part. As the group passed me, a man near the end of the procession called out my name and offered me palm branches. &#8220;Thanks,&#8221; I told him with a gesture toward my own church down the street, &#8220;but I&#8217;ll be getting some momentarily.&#8221;</p><p>Then comprehension dawned. It took me a moment to recognize the man, but he was the husband of a co-worker who, of course, knew about the little horse but hadn&#8217;t mentioned him at work &#8212; partly because she hesitates, as many newspaper employees do, to &#8220;promote&#8221; her own church or her own children&#8217;s school, etc.</p><p>Anyway, it took me a few more minutes to remember I had a small camera in my purse, handy for the photo opportunities that present themselves when it&#8217;s too late to get one of our photographers to the scene.</p><p>So I ran around the block to meet the procession as it returned to Good Shepherd and shot this photo of 7-year-old Elizabeth Perkins, of Wilkes-Barre, smiling with the pure joy of riding a little horse, just as Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Seven-year-old Elizabeth Perkins, of Wilkes-Barre, rides a little horse during a Palm Sunday procession. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_donkey-003.jpg</photo0><caption0>Seven-year-old Elizabeth Perkins, of Wilkes-Barre, rides a little horse during a Palm Sunday procession. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_marytheresebiebel-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Mary Therese Biebel </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_marytheresebiebel-4.jpg</photo1><caption1><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Mary Therese Biebel </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Not all news coverage is planned; sometimes, it just happens