A woman who stole her own daughter's identity and also helped herself to $33,000 of a Kailua church's money was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail and ordered to pay restitution to her victims.

Kimberly Wheeler, 39, lost a request to be sentenced to probation when Circuit Judge Richard Pollack said her crimes were so serious as to warrant jail time.

City Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter asked Pollack to sentence Wheeler to back-to-back 10-year prison terms.

Wheeler pleaded guilty to stealing from Windward Unity Church when she worked as office manager there from 2002 to 2006.

She also admitted to charging some $12,000 in purchases to credit cards she obtained by using her daughter's name and Social Security number. Wheeler's daughter was between 12 and 14 years old when the cards were obtained and only learned about the fraud years later when bill collectors contacted her for repayment of the debts.

The daughter, now 21 and attending college on the Mainland, suffered "enormous problems" because of her mother's crimes, Van Marter told the judge.

"It will take five years or more to undo the (financial) damage done," Van Marter said.

Wheeler apologized to the court and to her victims. "I lost my family, my husband," she said, but added that she is in contact with her daughter and is trying to make amends for what she has done.

Pollack told Wheeler that her daughter had written a letter to him. "She does not believe a prison term is warranted," Pollack said.

The Rev. David McClure, pastor of Windward Unity Church, said he was satisfied with Pollack's sentence and hopes Wheeler will use her time behind bars "to sort her life out."

His wife, Donna McClure, said Wheeler's theft of church funds was "a very difficult personal experience" for the couple.

David McClure at one time was under suspicion when the funds were discovered missing, she said.

Van Marter asked the judge for the maximum prison sentence, saying "a prison term is absolutely required" because the crimes were committed over a long period of time and involved "a lot of planning, deception and concealment."

Deputy Public Defender Jeffrey Ng noted that his client has already spent nine months in jail while awaiting trial and asked Pollack to sentence her to probation.

Wheeler has no other criminal record, Ng noted.

"She's remorseful, she's sincere, she admits she made a mistake," Ng said.

Sentencing the defendant to additional prison time would interfere with her ability to begin paying restitution to her victims, Ng said.

But Pollack ordered her to serve 18 months in jail — less the nine months she has already served — and to pay restitution of $44,592.

Once released from prison, Wheeler must serve an additional five years of court-supervised probation.