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Tears flow as killer gets life
Neither family is happy in case of young mom's hammer slaying
Sarah Patten's 5-year-old daughter, Payton, asks for her mother almost every day. Each time, the child is told Patten is in heaven.
Sometimes, Payton says she wants to die, too, "so I can see my mommy in heaven."
But more often, the child's step-grandmother, Cheryl Patten, said in court Monday, Payton gets balloons and releases them into the sky -- floating gifts she hopes will reach her mother.
One day, Payton may learn the story of her mother's brutal death. And she'll know that the man a jury found responsible for it will spend the rest of his life in prison.
After a day of emotional testimony that brought two families on opposite sides of a courtroom to tears, Orange Circuit Judge Lisa T. Munyon sentenced Derek Pelto to life in prison for killing his girlfriend -- Payton's mother -- by stabbing and then striking her repeatedly with a hammer in his apartment March 29, 2003.
Handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom Monday, Pelto turned to his family and said: "Don't worry about me. I love you guys. I'll be fine."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-mpelto2905nov29,0,4011716.story?track=rss
Neither family is happy in case of young mom's hammer slaying
Sarah Patten's 5-year-old daughter, Payton, asks for her mother almost every day. Each time, the child is told Patten is in heaven.
Sometimes, Payton says she wants to die, too, "so I can see my mommy in heaven."
But more often, the child's step-grandmother, Cheryl Patten, said in court Monday, Payton gets balloons and releases them into the sky -- floating gifts she hopes will reach her mother.
One day, Payton may learn the story of her mother's brutal death. And she'll know that the man a jury found responsible for it will spend the rest of his life in prison.
After a day of emotional testimony that brought two families on opposite sides of a courtroom to tears, Orange Circuit Judge Lisa T. Munyon sentenced Derek Pelto to life in prison for killing his girlfriend -- Payton's mother -- by stabbing and then striking her repeatedly with a hammer in his apartment March 29, 2003.
Handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom Monday, Pelto turned to his family and said: "Don't worry about me. I love you guys. I'll be fine."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-mpelto2905nov29,0,4011716.story?track=rss
