Girlfriend lured victim to domineering boyfriend’s apartment as a sexual gift
By Lynne Tuohy
Associated Press
DOVER, N.H. (AP) - The mother of a slain college student told her daughter's killer that she "unequivocally" hates him before the man was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
Melissa Marriott addressed Seth Mazzaglia, who was being sentenced for killing and raping Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott, of Westborough, Massachusetts, after she rejected his sexual advances.
"Mr. Mazzaglia, I want you to know that I unequivocally hate you," Melissa Marriott said in a firm voice. "You are a cowardly, despicable person. You stole our smart, vivacious, beautiful daughter from us. You murdered Lizzi, raped her lifeless body and then threw her away because Lizzi had the self-confidence and the self-esteem to say no to you."
Mazzaglia, 31, of Dover, New Hampshire, was convicted in June of first-degree murder in the death of Marriott in the apartment he shared with then-girlfriend Kathryn McDonough.
McDonough testified that she lured Marriott to the apartment on Oct. 9, 2012, as a sexual gift to her domineering boyfriend. She is serving 1 ½ to 3 years in prison for hindering prosecution.
Also addressing Mazzaglia were Marriott's grandparents, father, girlfriend and other relatives and friends.
At least eight of the jurors who convicted Mazzaglia also were in attendance.
On an easel, a large portrait of a beaming Elizabeth Marriott holding out a frog in the palm of her hands was tilted toward Mazzaglia. His parents were also in court, separated from Marriott's relatives and friends by a table where a court security officer sat.
McDonough initially told investigators that Marriott died while the two women were engaged in consensual rough sex. Granted immunity from prosecution, she later said Mazzaglia strangled Marriott after she twice rebuffed him. The pair threw Marriott's body in a river. It's never been found.
In a phone call to his mother from jail last week, Mazzaglia proclaimed his innocence and complained about having to attend the sentencing.
"I already know what everyone's gonna say there so why the hell do I have to be there? And it's a waste of my time," he told his mother, Heather Mazzaglia, in the recorded call. State officials released the transcript Wednesday.
"If I had been found innocent of the big stuff like I should have been, and like I am, now then it might be a different story," he said. "Then, then I might have some sympathy."
"But I'm gonna have to sit there for an hour and a half listening to them yell and whine and bitch and moan and scream about how I'm a monster who killed someone when I'm not," he continued.
His mother tried to convince him he should face the family.
"They're, they're in misery," she said. "I mean they're in agony. Their, their daughter is lost. I would be the same if it were you but, you know, you have to sympathize with what they've lost."
