Lockhart sentenced in wife’s murder Judge cites abuse, gives 47-year term

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ELLSWORTH – Convicted murderer Stephen Lockhart was sentenced Thursday to 47 years in prison for the 1998 brutal killing of his wife, an act the sentencing judge said resulted from an escalating pattern of anger and violence that Lockhart directed at his wife.

Justice Thomas Warren said Lockhart’s actions immediately after he killed 32-year-old Andrea Lockhart, in which he encased his estranged wife’s body in a makeshift cardboard and fiberglass coffin in a boat shop below his Manset apartment, indicate he was struck after the fact by the enormity of what he had done. It was not so much the gruesome concealment of her body but the pattern of physical abuse Lockhart directed to his wife, and her ultimate death at his hands, that warranted a stiff sentence, he said.

The effect of the murder on the couple’s three young children and on Andrea Lockhart’s ailing mother, and the need to deter further domestic violence in society were all aggravating factors in determining Lockhart’s sentence, according to Warren.

Warren said he disagreed with a statement made by Bangor defense attorney Christopher Largay, who asked for a 25-year sentence for his client, that society turned his client into a “poster boy” for domestic violence.

Largay and defense co-counsel Anthony Sineni of Portland unsuccessfully argued during the trial that Lockhart should be found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter. With the conviction, Lockhart faced a sentence of between 25 years and life in prison.

“I think you made yourself a poster child for domestic violence,” Justice Thomas Warren told Lockhart shortly before handing down the sentence late Thursday afternoon.

“Mr. Lockhart is a very angry man, and that anger is part of what got us here today,” Warren said. “Rage against Andrea became an outlet somewhere in the marriage.”

Lockhart, 38, was convicted last fall in Kennebec County Superior Court of killing his wife in December 1998 by bludgeoning her with a 21-inch piece of lumber, covering her face with duct tape and encasing her body in a coffin fashioned out of a cardboard box and fiberglass.

Lockhart initially hid his crime from Andrea Lockhart’s relatives when they came to Southwest Harbor looking for her, but later went to local police and confessed to killing his wife. Lockhart’s trial was moved to Augusta after his attorneys argued the publicity of the case would make it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Hancock County.

When Warren announced the sentence, Andrea Lockhart’s family and supporters looked at each other and smiled.

“Yes!” Cindy Sargent, a friend of Andrea Lockhart’s and the guardian of the Lockharts’ three young children, said in a loud whisper. Lockhart, standing at the defense table between his two attorneys, stared ahead at the judge without showing any emotion.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese, the prosecutor in the case, told Warren the sentence should send a message about society’s intolerance for domestic violence.

“People will listen,” Marchese said. “This man’s history of violence is a severe aggravating factor.”

Before the sentence was announced, Lockhart, reading from a prepared, handwritten 18-page statement, addressed the court for roughly an hour. In the statement, Lockhart detailed some of the aspects of his seven-year marriage to Andrea Lockhart and recounted his version of some of the arguments and violence that occurred between him and his wife.

“I’ll never forget the god-awful fear that came over me when I realized Andrea was dead,” Lockhart said. “I’m so ashamed of what I did that afternoon.”

Lockhart accused Marchese of misrepresenting the facts of the case and the Maine State Police detective who interviewed him after the murder of fabricating testimony. He said he also was physically abused by his wife and that during their marriage and since her murder he has made his children’s well-being his first concern.

Harriet Stratton of Surry, Andrea Lockhart’s mother, also addressed the court through a written statement read aloud by a victim witness advocate. Stratton, who was not at the sentencing, said her failing heart condition and her diabetes prevented her from being in court.

In the statement, Stratton squarely placed the blame for her failing physical condition on her former son-in-law.

“Steve is not responsible for only my daughter’s death, but mine as well,” the advocate read from Stratton’s statement. “He is evil and needs to stop blaming others for the grotesque murder of my daughter.”

Lockhart admitted that his killing his wife is responsible for Stratton’s poor health and for the death of his own mother two years ago.

Mary Kief, Andrea Lockhart’s sister, and Sargent also addressed the court. Both said Lockhart has sent “mean and hateful” letters to each of them since the trial and asked that Lockhart not send any more.

“We need to know Stephen Lockhart will not be a threat to anyone else,” Kief said.

In arguing for relative leniency for his client, Largay said the facts that Lockhart grew up in a home where his parents were alcoholics and that his father abused his mother should be mitigating factors in the sentencing.

After the proceeding, Largay said he and Sineni were disappointed that Lockhart received a sentence nearly twice as long as what they had asked for. He said they disagreed with Warren’s statement that Lockhart’s sentence would send a message to society as a whole about domestic violence.

“In no way are you going to cure society’s ills through this case,” Largay said. “Domestic violence was the sword [in this case]. It got swung in every direction and it shredded the other issues.”

Largay said he and Sineni had not yet discussed with Lockhart the possibility of appealing the case.

Marchese, who asked for 40 to 50 years, said after the proceeding that she was pleased with the judge’s decision.

“[Lockhart] will be separated from society and hopefully the message will be sent to other batterers,” Marchese said.