Devin Grosvenor|Woman gets 2 life sentences in 2021 murders of father, his longtime girlfriend

2025-05-03 12:35:42source:Greenledgerscategory:My

TOMS RIVER,Devin Grosvenor N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to two life terms in the shooting and stabbing deaths of her father and his longtime girlfriend 2 1/2 years ago in New Jersey.

Sherry Lee Heffernan, 57, of Landenberg, Pennsylvania was convicted in March of murder and weapons offenses in the deaths of her father, John Enders, 87, and Francoise Pitoy, 75, Enders’ longtime live-in girlfriend. Both were shot and stabbed repeatedly in Enders’ Long Beach Island home in the fall of 2021.

The Asbury Park Press reports that Heffernan stood calmly Friday as an Ocean County judge imposed the pair of consecutive life prison sentences. Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill said the crime “was committed with extreme depravity” and ordered her to serve 63 years, nine months without possibility of parole for each murder.

Minutes earlier, Heffernan had sobbed as she professed her innocence and called the victims “priceless people” she would “forever miss.”

“I really wish I was the one who was killed, that I was the one who died,″ she said tearfully in a courtroom packed with relatives and friends of both victims. “ ... It’s horrible to lose people you love and then be blamed for it.″

READ MORE 1 of 3 teens charged with killing a Colorado woman while throwing rocks at cars pleads guiltyLouisiana court may reopen window for lawsuits by adult victims of childhood sex abuseMan pleads guilty in theft of bronze Jackie Robinson statue from Kansas park

New Jersey authorities alleged that Heffernan was upset with her father because she had been cut out of his will, and she traveled to the home in her recreational vehicle on the night of Sept. 29, 2021.

Michael Weatherstone, chief trial attorney with the county prosecutor’s office, alleged that the defendant stabbed the victims as they slept, shot both not to kill but to inflict more suffering, then put her father in a chair and kept stabbing him while looking him in the eye. Enders was stabbed a total of 51 times and Pitoy 39 times, authorities said.

Prosecutors cited evidence tracking the vehicle and Heffernan’s cellphone along that route and footprints found in the home. Defense attorneys Steven Altman and Phil Nettl argued there was no evidence that Heffernan was in the vehicle.

More:My

Recommend

Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return

NEW YORK ― When the precocious orphans of "Annie" sneer, "We love you, Miss Hannigan," you just migh

Ford issues do-not-drive advisory for some vehicles with Takata airbags: See full list

Ford has issued a do-not-drive advisory for the owners of some vehicles who have not had them repair

Elon Musk's estranged daughter takes to X rival Threads to call him a liar, adulterer

Vivian Jenna Wilson, the estranged daughter of X founder Elon Musk, has taken to a rival platform to