Woman sentenced in young son’s 1986 disappearance, presumed death
A woman charged in connection with her young son’s disappearance and presumed death more than 35 years ago will serve less than a year in prison.
District Judge Tierra Jones sentenced 63-year-old Amy Fleming on Friday to two years behind bars after she pleaded guilty in August to voluntary manslaughter. But Fleming’s defense attorney, Nicholas Wooldridge, said that due to the time Fleming already has spent in jail, she will serve about eight months in prison.
When Fleming was arrested in February 2019 in Palm Beach, Florida, she was initially charged with murder after a development prompted detectives to reopen the cold case.
She had been suspected for years in the disappearance of her son, 3-year-old Francillon Pierre, who was last seen Aug. 2, 1986, at the then-Broad Acres swap meet in North Las Vegas.
Fleming entered what is known as an Alford plea, Wooldridge said, which means she admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove her guilt.
“She has maintained her innocence throughout,” the attorney said.
He said the case would have been hard to take to trial, because many of the witnesses who could have been called in Fleming’s favor are now dead.
While Nevada law now allows judges to sentence someone to a range of years, the law when Francillon went missing called for a two-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said on Friday that he does not believe that the state “got the full measure of justice,” and that he would have liked to have found Francillon.
“At the very least, history is going to reflect that his death was the responsibility of this particular defendant,” DiGiacomo said.
Fleming, who appeared in court on Friday next to her lawyer, declined to give a statement, and no one gave a victim impact statement.
During the original investigation, Fleming and her then-fiance, Lee Luster, claimed that Francillon had slipped away from them while they shopped for a bicycle at the swap meet. Witnesses at the meet said they had not seen Francillon, and neighbors said they had not seen the boy leave the house in weeks, police said.
Both Fleming and Luster served time in jail for lying during police interviews. Police said the two rarely discussed Francillon’s disappearance in letters they wrote to each other.
It remains unclear how Francillon died.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.