POUGHKEEPSIE, NY A New York man who admitted strangling eight women over a two-year period and hiding their corpses in the home he shared with his mother and father was sentenced on Monday to life in prison.
Kendall Francois, appearing at a gut-wrenching sentencing proceeding during which six of the victims' families and a woman he attacked made statements, never looked up from the defense table where he was seated.
His expression remained deadpan.
Sentenced to life in prison by Dutchess County Judge Thomas Dolan, he escaped the death penalty by pleading guilty in June to all 17 of the first- and second-degree murder counts against him.
The case tested a major provision of New York's 1995 death penalty law, which mandates that a defendant may not plead guilty until a district attorney has made a decision regarding capital punishment in a case.
Francois had tried to plead guilty before Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady announced his decision.
The battle over the timing of the plea was ultimately settled in the state's Highest Court in favor of the district attorney.
Grady's decision to avoid a costly, lengthy trial and instead put Francois in prison for life came earlier this summer.
Monday's proceeding was dramatic, nevertheless, with the surprise appearance of Christine Sala, who narrowly escaped becoming Francois' ninth victim and who stood up to speak to her attacker.
Shaking and sobbing so much that she could barely open her prepared statement, Sala said it was time for her to "confront the man who took innocent people's lives and tried to take mine." "I hope you remember me for the rest of your life," she said, sobbing. "I hope you remember who put you away." Sala, a drug addict like Francois' previous victims, alerted police after he tried to strangle her but inexplicably stopped and let her go.
Police arrested Francois, a 29-year-old former middle school hall monitor, and charged him in the murders of eight women between 1996 and 1998.
Authorities said he kept their bodies in the Poughkeepsie house he shared with his mother, father and teenaged sister, hiding five bodies in the attic and three in the cellar of the foul-smelling, garbage-strewn home.
None of his family members was charged in the case, although in court, several relatives of the murdered women said it was impossible for them not to have suspected what was going on.
Francois said nothing in court but barely audible assents when the judge asked if he understood what was happening to him.
Sala and relatives of Francois' victims said they regretted he would not face the death penalty.
Tammy Coppola, a sister of Francois' last victim, Catina Newmaster, said she would not be satisfied "until he breathes no more." "If ever there was an instance where the death penalty could have stood on solid ground, this was it," said Heidi Crammer, a daughter of victim Sandra Jean French.
The district attorney originally intended to seek capital punishment but in June reversed himself, saying a trial would make public too many horrific details of the crimes and, considering Francois' disturbed mental state, a jury might not sentence him to death anyway.
Grady said, however, Francois was sane during the murders.
Only one of Francois' relatives, a cousin who has aligned himself with the victims' families, attended the proceeding.
(Reuter)