John Mark Wilka

A public defender would have done just as much, if not more, helping me with and defending my case for probably less than $1000 instead of the $10,000 +tax that I paid John. He came and visited me at the jail soon after he was hired. Was very polite, friendly and professional. Talked alot about his e...xperience at trial and cases won. Then he finally asked about my case and after telling him everything I could, all he said was, "Well, there are some problems with the State's case against you and I will use that to see what kind of deal I can get you". He didnt say what the problems were or anything about possible defense. He just figured me guilty and needing a good deal. That meeting lasted a half hour maybe. I patiently waited in jail for news from John. I wrote him numerous letters with more information I remembered that I thought could be helpful and asked him what was happening but no response. I think it was 9 or 10 months before John shows up and says if I plead guilty to one felony count they will drop the 14 other counts against me and cap my sentence at 5 years. My charge carried a maximum of 10 so I specifically asked if they might try to be sneaky and tack on an extra 5 years suspended to that 5 year cap and he said "no, it's a 5 year cap". So I told him I'd do it then ^ then another 5 months goes by and when I finally go to court to plea, my plea deal magically changed from a cap of 5 on one count to 3 counts alltogether and all time would be suspended on counts 2 & 3. I told John I didnt feel right and was worried about all that suspended time he said I wouldnt get. He told me not to worry about it and that since they reneged on the plea deal that I didnt have to take it but then he would have to start all over. It had been over a year and I wasnt going to sit in Jail another year waiting for him to lie to me about another plea deal. At my sentencing I got the 5 years PLUS 5 more suspended on count one an additional 10 years suspended on each of the other two counts which weren't even supposed to be part of it. So, John lied to me twice, never intended from the get-go to try and fight for me in court, went months without any response to my letters and when he did visit the two times probably were less than 1 hour together. Two court dates which would be an hour(rounded up) each. One hour(rounded up) talking on the phone with my Father. And I highly doubt any more than a half hour negotiating a deal I never got. So, for $10,000+tax I got 4 1/2 hours work(if you can even call it that). The only reason I'm giving two stars instead of one is because I was originally looking at 150 years alltogether and ended up doing 2, most of which was in county not knowing what was going on but the outcome could have been way worse. And because the first two attorneys we called wanted $20,000. So John was half price. But I guess you get what you pay for and in this case, I think that was as little as possible. Nothing more than what a public defender would do and maybe even less. I would suggest getting a public defender. Sure they might be somewhat inexperienced and have a high case load but they respond to letters and visit whenever needed. They are always around. And, for less than $1000 attorney fees (if found guilty) you probably get the same amount of effort, possibly more attention(wouldnt take a whole lot) and probably the same exact outcome in the end so I wouldnt waste your money. Put it in a savings account and have a nice head start at getting your feet back on the ground and to a new & better life once you get out of jail.