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Hi, it's Rebecca.We have been on a long journey together following Elizabeth Holmes, tracing her story from Stanford dropout to Silicon Valley star to disgraced convict.And now it is judgment day.
Today's bonus episode of The Dropout is about the sentencing of Elizabeth Holmes.In fact, it just happened only a few minutes ago.
Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, 135 months, plus three years of supervised release.When Judge Davila handed down the sentence, a very pregnant and visibly emotional Elizabeth cried.
She hugged her family, her mom, her dad, and her partner, Billy Evans.
Judge Davila told the courtroom, the same one where Elizabeth was found guilty of four counts of criminal fraud 10 months ago, that the tragedy of this case is that Elizabeth is a deep thinker.
She's a woman in an industry dominated by powerful males. People gravitate towards her, but there were manipulations.He added that investors take risks, but not risks based on lies and fraud.
Just before the sentencing, Elizabeth stood between her attorneys with about 20 family and friends right behind her, and she addressed the court.She started crying.She said she loved Theranos.She wanted to make the world better.
She said she feels every day she failed and said, I regret my feelings with every cell of my body.She said she's sorry for the people she hurt, to the investors, the patients.She said, I am sorry.If she could turn back the clock,
She said she would, she'd do so many things differently.She said she wanted to learn from this experience to do good.She quoted the poet Rumi saying, yesterday I tried to change the world, today I'm wise and want to change myself.
She said she wants to do good for Billie, for her children and her family. But even before that final petition from Elizabeth, we heard from Tyler Schultz's father, Alec Schultz, who raised his hand and asked to speak in the courtroom.
He talked about what it was like to be the dad of a whistleblower and the son of a Theranos board member and one time Elizabeth Holmes confidant. He talked about Elizabeth hiring an investigator to follow his son and probably he and his wife too.
He told the court how Tyler slept with a knife under his pillow because he thought someone was going to kill him. My family home was desecrated by Elizabeth and the lawyers, Alex Schultz told the court.
Alex Schultz also made an interesting point about Sonny Belwani.He basically said that while people try and cast Sonny as the villain in this story, it's really Elizabeth who he holds responsible.
She's the person who, according to Alex Schultz, preyed on his father, George Schultz's weaknesses and targeted him for window dressing to legitimize herself.
And even before all of that drama, the lawyers from both the government and the defense were duking it out.The government was pushing for a harsher 15-year sentence.They also asked for an $800 million restitution payment.
Defense pushed back hard on that. Judge Davila ultimately said the restitution will be decided at a later date.Now, team Holmes, Elizabeth's team, was looking for a much smaller sentence, 18 months max behind bars.
And their argument was Elizabeth was not driven by greed.She never cashed out of her position.She never spent her salary on yachts or expensive things.And they also really took to task
the degree of public scrutiny Elizabeth has received, all the media attention.
At one point, her attorney said it was almost trite to say the case was subject to intense media attention, and he said Elizabeth was basically forced already into home confinement. So here we are, 11 years.That is a lot of time behind bars.
But according to Judge Davila, just before he handed down the sentence, the sentencing guidelines, in his view, afforded up to 14 years behind bars.So what happens now?
We asked our legal analyst Ellen Kreitzberg, Professor Emeritus of Law at Santa Clara University, about the process.And here's what she had to say about the defense's next move.
Usually within 14 days, they file what's called a notice of appeal, which is just a very short piece of paper saying we intend to appeal this case.It then takes weeks, if not months, to write the briefs and raise all the issues.
This procedure goes into what's called the court of appeals, which doesn't call witnesses.That court looks at pleadings filed by the government, pleadings filed
by the defense and has an oral argument, just as we saw during trial might happen on a motion.And then the court rules based on legal issues.So these are not evidence or fact issues.These are legal issues.And how long might that take?
Kreitzberg says a year or even two.A year would be the shortest amount of time I could imagine.It would probably be more than that.
Elizabeth has been ordered by Judge Davila to surrender on April 27th of next year.Her team can push for a later date based on a multitude of factors, including that appeal that they're likely to start within the next 14 days.
But will she actually be going to prison on April 27th? At this moment, it is possible that she'd go while the appeal is still underway, but it's also possible that her team will push for a delayed surrender until the appeal's concluded.
And even if her prison start date is delayed, it likely won't have any impact on the length of prison time she serves.
We spoke to another legal analyst you've gotten to know through the dropout, criminal defense attorney and adjunct lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, Caroline Polisi,
And she says, because Judge Davila stayed within the sentencing guidelines, remember, he could have gone to 14 years, an appeal will likely have no impact and therefore Elizabeth will very likely serve her entire sentence.
And because this is a federal prison, there is no parole. And that's where it all stands for today.Thank you so much for listening to this bonus episode, for supporting our work over the years throughout this journey.
We will continue to work on this story and other projects as well.And we hope you'll continue to follow all of it in the future.Thank you. The Dropout, Elizabeth Holmes on Trial, is written and reported by Victoria Thompson, Taylor Dunn, and me.
Victoria's the executive producer, Taylor and I are producers.This episode was mixed by Brenda Salinas Baker.Evan Viola composed the music for The Dropout.Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY and Cedric Honstadt.
Special thanks to Annie Pong, Al Lopez, Ian Rosenberg, and to ABC Audio and Liz Alessi.
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