CAROLYN SALAZAR, csalazar@herald.com

In an emotional, tearful speech Monday, ousted Hialeah Gardens Mayor Gilda Oliveros pleaded with a Miami-Dade County circuit judge to allow her to spend the next few years with her children and her 73-year-old mother - not in a cramped prison cell.

"I want to be with my daughter when she gets pregnant. I want to be there for my mother when she needs me,'' Oliveros said. "Please let me stay home with them.''
Circuit Judge Peter Lopez rejected her pleas, sentencing Oliveros to four years and eight months in prison for plotting to kill her second husband and voter fraud. She remains free on bond pending an appeal, which could take months.

Lopez imposed the most lenient sentence allowable under the sentencing guidelines. He could have given her a maximum of eight years in prison.

"I was prepared for something worse,'' Oliveros said after sentencing. "I'm just happy that I got a chance to come home with my children. I'm trustful we will be successful in the appeal process.''

Lopez sentenced her to more than four years for solicitation to commit murder, three years for voter fraud and 364 days for a misdemeanor voter-fraud conviction. He said the sentences could be served concurrently.

"The task of this court is never an easy one, but the court must follow the law,'' Lopez said.

In June, a six-member jury convicted her after a three-week, soap-opera-like trial that brought out allegations she tried to recruit two city employees to kill her estranged husband for a $45,000 insurance payout. City employees also testified they were asked to carry out political vendettas and bizarre Santeria rituals.

Oliveros, who remained stoic during her trial, sobbed throughout the five-hour hearing Monday.

Among those who testified on her behalf: Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez; Hialeah Gardens Police Chief Keith Joy and City Attorney Neil Flaxman; and her two daughters.

"I have not always been best friends with Gilda Oliveros, we have not always been on the same political side,'' Martinez said. "But I'm asking for leniency for a woman who is a mother and daughter.''

Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence, arguing that as a public official, Oliveros should be held to higher standards.

"This case involves corruption and misuse of power. And there was political motivation behind it,'' said Joseph Centorino, Miami-Dade's chief public corruption prosecutor. ``We did not hear one indication of remorse from this defendant, and I think that's significant.''

Oliveros' attorney portrayed her as a victim of a biased jury that found her guilty of allegations made by disgruntled city employees with an ax to grind.

"In recent history, there has never been a public official whose children, parents and personal life has been dragged through the mud as much as this case,'' said lawyer Michael Pizzi. "No one could possibly give her punishment far worse than what she has already gotten. She didn't deserve that. She's already in prison forever, and her family has been scarred for life.''