HAMPTON — Elizabeth Paige Coast was sentenced to two months in jail and ordered to make $90,000 in restitution to an innocent man who spent four years behind bars for a lie that snowballed.
Coast, 26, pleaded guilty to perjury in May and was sentenced today by Hampton Circuit Court Judge Bonnie L. Jones, who said she was deeply disturbed the case.
“This goes to the very heart of our judicial system,” the judge said before imposing a five-year sentence and suspending all but two months which Coast will be allowed to serve on weekends.
The sentencing clears the way for the Virginia Court of Appeals to consider a petition for a writ of actual innocence filed by Johnathan C. Montgomery, a former neighbor of Coast accused of assaulting her in 2000 when she was 10 years old and he was 14.
Source: Times Dispatch
