Trial
Hitner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and in May 1971 was sentenced to 30 years, with 5 stayed based on his having testified at trial against Comeau, who was convicted and given 30 years. Debra Mattingly, for her part, was sent to a juvenile institution in Florida, after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial in adult court. She was later deprived of any interest in her father's estate as a result of a legal suit filed against her by her brother. Truax, who claimed she had been horrified by these events (notwithstanding testimony that she had talked about being a "witch" at the time and had been an accessory), escaped prosecution, after testifying at trial against Comeau. Hitner later claimed to have embraced Christianity, and attributed his behavior in a statement at sentencing to his experience as a killer in Vietnam, combined with his abuse of LSD, which had made him think he was killing a Viet Cong, as part of a mindset that had given him a depraved indifference to human life.
Read more about this topic: Richard Mattingly Murder Case
Famous quotes containing the word trial:
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
—Edward C. Banfield (b. 1916)
“Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)