NH Man Sentenced 50 Years In Death Of Maine Mom
OSSIPEE, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man was sentenced to 50 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the disappearance and death last year of a Maine mother, whose 14-month-old baby was found abandoned in her car.
"I can't tell you how truly sorry I am for what I've done," Anthony Papile said in Carroll County court. "I stand here a broken-hearted and sorry man. I'm going to live with the pain and the shame of being a monster in their lives. I don't ask forgiveness because I don't deserve it."
Papile, of Ossipee, pleaded guilty in the death of 20-year-old Krista Dittmeyer of Portland, Maine. She was found in the Cranmore Mountain ski area's snowmaking pond in New Hampshire in April 2011. The cause of death was prolonged cold water submersion.
Dittmeyer's car was found idling in the ski area's parking lot with her baby girl unharmed inside. Prosecutor Jane Young said Papile left the heat on and the lights flashing with the hope that someone would find the child. Dittmeyer's body was found four days later in the pond, which Papile, a former ski area employee, had helped build.
"She was the most kind and loving mom," Dittmeyer's mother, Lanell Shackley, said tearfully. "That day in April, Anthony Papile took away a daughter, a sister, a mother and a kind and loving friend." Shackley is caring for Dittmeyer's daughter, now 2 years old.
Prosecutors said Dittmeyer was lured to a friend's apartment and clubbed three times in the head by Papile. They said he plotted to steal drugs and money from her.
Prosecutors said Papile and the friend, Michael Petelis of Ossipee, bound Dittmeyer with duct tape and put her in the trunk of her car before heading to the ski area. Prosecutors said another man, Trevor Ferguson of Tamworth, agreed to give Papile a ride home from the ski area in exchange for money and drugs. Both Petelis and Ferguson were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Papile's sentence could be cut short by about seven years if he earns his high school diploma and complete other educational courses in prison.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
