> ADDITIONAL STORIES
Actual Victim Impact Letter
by Bonnie Kaufman on behalf of her daughter Janelle The Honorable Richard B. Walker
Harvey County Courthouse
P.O. Box 687
Newton, KS 67114 RE: State of Kansas vs. Gerald D. Beal Sentencing
Case # 95-CR-6886 Dear Judge Walker: Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. My daughter, Janelle Kaufman, was killed by Gerald Beal on a Sunday evening, July 9, 1995. This probably will be one of the most difficult letters I will ever have to write in behalf of my daughter. Words will always only be words and o try and convey to someone else the pain you feel is still only words, but I hink I would like to try to let you know what drunk driving has done to our lives. If I could describe to you what I think a touch of hell would be like I would say this: It's the door that leads to my daughter's bedroom and my daughter is no longer there; it's setting the table and knowing the chair she sat in will not longer - ever - be used by her again; it's wanting to bad to give her a hug and tell her I love here but knowing I can only whisper into the heavens and God will pass it on; it's trying not to think or be left alone because you know the pain may be so great to bear and please don't let me go crazy because other people need me; it's going into a store and passing by all he things I used to buy for her knowing there is no one to buy them for any more; it's getting the phone call Sunday night telling us that our daughter has been seriously injured and we need to come right away; it's praying all the way o the hospital and promising God that if she lives you'll do anything - and hen finding out that you will do anything to survive because she died. I wish I could have given her one more hug and one more kiss. I was one of he lucky ones - two hours before she was killed she told me she loved me. Thank you God for letting me have that one last time. Janelle was the youngest of my hree children and she definitely was my baby. I chose not to work away from home until she was in school and the last four years of her life, she was the only child at home. I did spoil her (as my older children would tell me) but she was a very good spoiled kid. We were very strict with our children when they were growing up. Drinking and partying was forbidden and they never argued with us because we made them understand the harm it can do. I remember telling Don shortly before Janelle graduated from high school that we had made it!! Meaning we had gotten all three kids out of high school and they were good kids and didn't believe in drinking, etc. She died by a drunk two months later. Janelle played an active role in the D.A.R.E. program because of her beliefs and also because she loved little children. She was going to have a dozen, so she said, but now I'll never see the grandchildren that could have been. I wasn't ready not to be a mom anymore either. I would beg and plead with God if it were possible to let Janelle come back home, but I know that it's not and I know that no matter how many years Gerald Beal serves in prison, my little Janelle will never come home. All I will ask of you is to consider very seriously giving Gerald Beal a very stiff sentence, because we know that his drinking habits have not changed. It will only be a matter of time before he kills again if he does not change his life. You are one of the stepping stones on the way to showing the drinking drivers of this world that we are so tired of letting them off to kill again and again. Thank you again for reading this letter and considering my opinion. Maybe Janelle's death will help keep someone else alive. Respectfully,
Bonnie Kaufman | 
