photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Jessica Leigh Silkiner Gallardo appears with attorney Hatem Chahine Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, at her sentencing in Douglas County District Court.

A drug dealer’s attorney told a judge Friday that his client was “very happy” with the plea deal she had made with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office — a deal that reduced one count of distribution of heroin causing death to two much lower-level offenses of unlawful distribution of less than one gram of heroin.

“It started as a level one and is now two level 4s,” the attorney, Hatem Chahine, told the court, referring to the felony levels recognized by Kansas law, with level one being the most serious. He said the plea to the lesser charges had been negotiated over several years, including a period in which his client was serving time in federal prison in another heroin case.

Jessica Leigh Silkiner Gallardo, who pleaded guilty to the distribution offenses on Nov. 5, 2025, was sentenced to a total of 45 months in prison for the two counts, or just under four years, in a case that involved the death of 24-year-old Blossom Faye Kyle in 2018. Another individual, Timothy Edward Thompson, was also charged in the Kyle case and is scheduled to enter a plea on Feb. 5.

According to Kyle’s obituary, she was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and had lived in Lawrence since 2000. At the time of her death she was working as a Medicare help line assistant but also was a restaurant server and did work as an electrician for several years. She had long-term plans to get a degree in Early Childhood Education.

Kyle was found unresponsive by her boyfriend on the morning of Aug. 26, 2018. Her autopsy listed her cause of death as a heroin overdose.

Kyle’s family was not present at the sentencing Friday, but Senior Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple told Judge Amy Hanley that the family was “comfortable” with the plea agreement.

Silkiner Gallardo, when given a chance to speak, made a two-sentence apology to Kyle’s family.

“I just would like to apologize to the victim’s family,” she said. “I’m deeply sorry for the outcome of my actions.”

Even though Silkiner Gallardo’s offenses fell in border-box territory on the state sentencing grid, meaning a judge could potentially opt for a nonprison sentence, Silkiner Gallardo had agreed to not request further leniency or probation.

Hanley nevertheless specified that she would not have made a border-box “finding.”

“Prison and accountability are what is appropriate here,” she said.

Hanley also declined to grant a defense request to free Silkiner Gallardo, 40, from the obligation to pay restitution in the amount of $4,357 — a cost associated with transporting her to Douglas County from a federal prison in Florida where she was serving time in another drug case. Hanley ordered that the restitution be paid as a condition of Silkiner Gallardo’s post-release supervision.

Silkiner Gallardo will have 661 days of jail credit to apply toward her 45-month sentence.