Kelli Lepler pleaded no contest Aug. 4 in Hall County District Court to three Class IIIA felony counts of attempted theft by deception, and Judge Andrew Butler found her guilty. A no-contest plea accepts a conviction without an admission of guilt. In exchange, 43 theft charges were dismissed; she pleaded to three reduced counts. Sentencing is set for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 30 before Butler, per Central Nebraska Today, KSNB and KRVN.
KSNB, citing the court record, calls the counts "criminal attempt to commit theft by deception of more than $5,000."
By the Numbers
The plea followed a year-and-a-half competency fight. Butler first found Lepler not competent to stand trial on Jan. 17, 2025 and ordered her held at the Lincoln Regional Center, Central Nebraska Today reported. She had refused antipsychotic medication; on July 20, 2025, Butler ordered her to take it. KSNB reported his June 12, 2026 ruling that she was competent with continued medication. She was arrested July 13, 2023 in Wentzville, Missouri.
The money owed to victims is one open question. Defense attorney Vicky Kenney said in court that Lepler owes victims $266,636. KSNB reports the State will request full restitution of $266,636.28, with the exact amount set at sentencing.
The other open question is what the case costs Nebraska taxpayers. Prosecutors will not seek additional jail time, KSNB reported Aug. 5. Hall County Attorney Marty Klein told KSNB the court can impose up to nine years in prison or up to 15 years of probation.
What the case has cost Nebraska taxpayers so far
Obitley priced the case with the state's own published rates: days in custody times the per-diem, plus any sentence times the prison or supervision rate.
Lepler's 1,118 days in custody, from her July 2023 arrest to her August plea, are already spent. At the Nebraska Association of County Officials' published 2024 jail average of $81 a day, that comes to $90,558, and it is a floor: some of those days were at the Lincoln Regional Center, which the state prices separately and above the jail average.
What Sept. 30 adds depends on the sentence. A nine-year prison term at the Department of Correctional Services' published rate of $36.67 a day (its fiscal note for LB 996, January 2024) costs roughly $120,000, or about $133,000 adjusted at 3 percent a year to 2026. Fifteen years of probation, the other pole, costs far less: state auditor figures published by the Nebraska Examiner put adult supervision between roughly $600 and $3,900 per person a year, or about $9,000 to $58,000 across the term. Either way, 18 months of post-release supervision follows a prison term, adding roughly $900 to $5,800.
Added up: the prison path brings total taxpayer exposure to roughly $210,000 to $230,000, and the probation path to roughly $100,000 to $150,000. The custody bill alone, $90,558, approaches the cost of the maximum prison term itself.
These figures exclude the county attorney's prosecution, public defense, court operations, the police investigation and Lepler's transport from Missouri, plus the competence evaluations and hearings across two years. Each pushes the real number higher. Restitution stays out of the math; the $266,636.28 is Lepler's debt to her victims.
Terri Webben, a retired Grand Island teacher, paid Lepler $7,510 on Aug. 2, 2021 for a headstone for her husband Jeff, 60, who died of cancer that April after nearly 40 years of marriage. Per Central Nebraska Today, two years of excuses followed, then a threat to involve an attorney and a demand that she stop harassing Lepler. A police complaint came April 4, 2023; that May, police told her about 53 victims had contacted them. She paid Wegner Monument $6,766 for a replacement; the stone went up at Shelton Cemetery on March 17, 2024. Her total across two businesses came to $14,276. A fundraiser by funeral director Dan Naranjo and retired librarian Steve Fosselman collected about $62,000 for the neediest victims, Central Nebraska Today reported. Victims told the outlet they doubt Lepler can pay restitution.
Obitley's Headstone Fraud Tracker carries the case with the full updated record: the plea, the 43 dismissed charges, the restitution request and the sentence-cost figures. What Sept. 30 adds will follow the hearing.
What This Means for You
The victims' question is whether restitution ever arrives. The question for Sept. 30: how much does the sentence add to a taxpayer bill that has already passed $90,000?
*Sources: Central Nebraska Today (Aug. 4, 5, 6 and 21, 2026), KSNB Local 4 (June 12 and Aug. 5 and 7, 2026), KRVN Rural Radio (August 2026), Nebraska Association of County Officials 2024 jail per-diem, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services fiscal note for LB 996 (Jan. 11, 2024), Nebraska State Auditor probation figures via the Nebraska Examiner (Aug. 4, 2025), Obitley Headstone Fraud Tracker entry lepler-ne-2023.*
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