Plotkin gets 22 years for role in Champion murders
By Kat Russell, Reporter
The Paducah Sun
May 20, 2017
http://www.paducahsun.com/plotkin-gets-years-for-role-in-champion-murders/article_de9032c7-ca3b-5c96-bd1b-b8cfdccfee5f.html
CADIZ — "This is what you did."
Holding up pictures of her slain family members, Lisa Champion spoke those words to Ann Plotkin after Plotkin admitted to helping Ryan Champion plan the murders of his father Lindsey Champion, 62; his mother, Joy Champion, 60; and his sister, Emily Champion, 31.
"Prior to October 26, 2014, the Plotkin name was foreign to my family," she said.
"Currently it is a name I and others associate with the murders of Lindsey, Joy and Emily. ... This person was privy to the plans a week prior to October 26, 2014, that culminated in their murders. This person, and I use the term loosely, could have stopped this atrocity. (But) my family was not considered to be of value unless they were dead."
Plotkin, 42, pleaded guilty Friday in Trigg Circuit Court to three counts of complicity to murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
With Plotkin's help, police believe Champion, 38, and his alleged accomplice Vito Riservato, 22, plotted together in a murder-for-hire scheme, killing Champion's family before Champion turned the gun on Riservato, killing him.
Champion pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of kidnapping in January and was given five life sentences.
During Friday's hearing, Plotkin sat silently and expressionless, listening to the statements from surviving family members. She offered no words of remorse or apology for what she'd done.
Lisa Champion, Lindsey Champion's sister, spoke first.
"Heartbreaking doesn't even begin to define my torture," she said. "I continue to search for them each day, hoping this is just a wretched nightmare. My searching ends when I'm again enveloped by the fallout from their deaths.
"Living the daily horror has hardened my soul. No longer a trust person, folks must prove they're trustworthy to me. Perhaps my lack of trust is reasonable considering I found Lindsey and Joy that day. ... The visions of my family in the manner I found them continually gallops through my mind."
Lisa Champion remembered her brother Lindsey as a kind and hard-working man who gave of his time and himself to his community. Her sister-in-law Joy, she said, was a teacher who devoted 30 years of her life to educating children. And Emily, she said, was just starting out in life, building a successful career as an equine veterinarian.
"Daily I consider the contribution my family made to the community, to their friends, their church and to their professions. ... (They were) valuable, hard-working people struck down by the complete opposite."
Joy Champion's sister, Judy Williams, spoke of the hole the deaths have left in the lives of those left behind.
"Joy, Lindsey and Emily are unable to celebrate birthdays, holidays or special occasions with us," she said. "We love and miss them more than words can say, and we think of them every day."
"You sentenced Joy, Lindsey and Emily to death and the rest of the family to life without them," she told Plotkin. "Our world is not as bright since they've been gone."
"Three beautiful lives gone, and you and Ryan left — there's no justice in that. Joy, Lindsey and Emily did more good in one day in their lives than you've done in your entire life. They touched more lives, made more memories and loved more deeply than you could with three lifetimes. They didn't deserve to die and you don't deserve to live."
Following the hearing, Commonwealth Attorney Carrie Ovey-Wiggins said she hoped the resolution would finally give the family a chance to heal.
"It is a good feeling to know that this is now behind the family members who were left behind," she said. "(The murders) happened in October of 2014 ... and the wounds open back up every time we have a court appearance, so I am happy that we were able to get the resolutions that we did in both cases.
"The pain for (the family) and the loss for them is never going to go away, but it is my hope for them, now that we have both cases resolved, those wounds will maybe start to close up a little bit."
Holding up pictures of her slain family members, Lisa Champion spoke those words to Ann Plotkin after Plotkin admitted to helping Ryan Champion plan the murders of his father Lindsey Champion, 62; his mother, Joy Champion, 60; and his sister, Emily Champion, 31.
"Prior to October 26, 2014, the Plotkin name was foreign to my family," she said.
"Currently it is a name I and others associate with the murders of Lindsey, Joy and Emily. ... This person was privy to the plans a week prior to October 26, 2014, that culminated in their murders. This person, and I use the term loosely, could have stopped this atrocity. (But) my family was not considered to be of value unless they were dead."
Plotkin, 42, pleaded guilty Friday in Trigg Circuit Court to three counts of complicity to murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
With Plotkin's help, police believe Champion, 38, and his alleged accomplice Vito Riservato, 22, plotted together in a murder-for-hire scheme, killing Champion's family before Champion turned the gun on Riservato, killing him.
Champion pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of kidnapping in January and was given five life sentences.
During Friday's hearing, Plotkin sat silently and expressionless, listening to the statements from surviving family members. She offered no words of remorse or apology for what she'd done.
Lisa Champion, Lindsey Champion's sister, spoke first.
"Heartbreaking doesn't even begin to define my torture," she said. "I continue to search for them each day, hoping this is just a wretched nightmare. My searching ends when I'm again enveloped by the fallout from their deaths.
"Living the daily horror has hardened my soul. No longer a trust person, folks must prove they're trustworthy to me. Perhaps my lack of trust is reasonable considering I found Lindsey and Joy that day. ... The visions of my family in the manner I found them continually gallops through my mind."
Lisa Champion remembered her brother Lindsey as a kind and hard-working man who gave of his time and himself to his community. Her sister-in-law Joy, she said, was a teacher who devoted 30 years of her life to educating children. And Emily, she said, was just starting out in life, building a successful career as an equine veterinarian.
"Daily I consider the contribution my family made to the community, to their friends, their church and to their professions. ... (They were) valuable, hard-working people struck down by the complete opposite."
Joy Champion's sister, Judy Williams, spoke of the hole the deaths have left in the lives of those left behind.
"Joy, Lindsey and Emily are unable to celebrate birthdays, holidays or special occasions with us," she said. "We love and miss them more than words can say, and we think of them every day."
"You sentenced Joy, Lindsey and Emily to death and the rest of the family to life without them," she told Plotkin. "Our world is not as bright since they've been gone."
"Three beautiful lives gone, and you and Ryan left — there's no justice in that. Joy, Lindsey and Emily did more good in one day in their lives than you've done in your entire life. They touched more lives, made more memories and loved more deeply than you could with three lifetimes. They didn't deserve to die and you don't deserve to live."
Following the hearing, Commonwealth Attorney Carrie Ovey-Wiggins said she hoped the resolution would finally give the family a chance to heal.
"It is a good feeling to know that this is now behind the family members who were left behind," she said. "(The murders) happened in October of 2014 ... and the wounds open back up every time we have a court appearance, so I am happy that we were able to get the resolutions that we did in both cases.
"The pain for (the family) and the loss for them is never going to go away, but it is my hope for them, now that we have both cases resolved, those wounds will maybe start to close up a little bit."