FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WOAY) – One of the three adults convicted in the 2018 death of 8-year-old Raylee Browning is asking a judge to release her from prison early.
Sherie Titchenell was sentenced in 2022 to 3 to 15 years in prison and has been incarcerated since. In a motion filed by her attorney, Evan Dove, Titchenell asks the court to change her prison sentence to supervised probation.
The motion says she has shown great remorse, has taken nearly every criminal awareness class available to her and has had no write-ups behind bars. It calls her “a model candidate for probation.”
Titchenell appeared by video for the hearing at the Fayette County Courthouse on Monday, but Judge Thomas Fast wants her in the courtroom. He ordered her brought from prison and postponed the hearing to a later date.
Raylee’s mother, Janice Wriston, was in the courtroom Monday. She said she will do all she can to keep all three defendants behind bars.
“Even the thought of them being released early is unfair. Completely. My daughter’s life is gone,” Wriston said.
When the hearing resumes, Wriston said she wants prosecutors to tell the judge that the defendants are beyond rehabilitation.
“You cannot cure a psychopath,” Wriston said. “They’ll do whatever they can and will to get out … They’re monsters. They always have been. And it doesn’t matter how many classes you take or how long you say you have been in rehabilitation … There’s no amount of time in prison that’s going to fix that or any type of program.”
Raylee died Dec. 26, 2018, from sepsis caused by pneumonia. In 2022, a jury convicted her father, Marty Browning Jr.; his girlfriend at the time, Julie Titchenell Browning; and Julie’s sister, Sherie Titchenell, of child neglect resulting in death. All three were acquitted of child abuse.
“She was helpless, defenseless. Well, she was also very smart, very understanding, very giving, very empathetic, very knowledgeable for her age. Had an old soul. She had dreams, and they crushed her dreams,” Wriston said of her daughter.
Raylee’s Law, introduced following the case, would pause homeschooling during a pending child abuse or neglect investigation. It has not passed the Legislature.
“I personally am a homeschooling mother, and Raylee’s Law is not an attack on homeschooling parents,” Wriston said.
Wriston said she was under a gag order during the trial and could not speak publicly.
“But I’ve decided that I’m ready to talk and I’m going to be loud for my daughter. I wish I would have been louder before,” she said.
According to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Titchenell’s next parole hearing is set for June 2027, and her projected release date is June 2029. If Fast grants her motion, she could be released on probation before either date.
