H  Convicted killer stabbed to death 

S1  Katherine Seeber, a Wilton woman who was paroled 10 months ago after spending a dozen years in prison for the killing of her step-great-grandmother, was fatally stabbed in Queens, New York City police said.

S2  Seeber’s boyfriend, Pedro Sanchez, was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday for the killing, said Detective Martin Tinspeechley.
S3 It’s the same charge Seeber pleaded guilty to in 2000 for her role in the death of 91-year-old Ruth Witter in a robbery gone awry.

S4  Both the attorney who defended Seeber for more than a decade and the prosecutor who sought to put her behind bars said Seeber’s death appears to be the final chapter in a life that all too often centered around abusive relationships.

S5  The criminal case against Seeber was one of the lengthiest and most unusual legal sagas Saratoga County has ever seen.

S6  Allegations surfaced that a veteran police investigator who committed suicide had mishandled evidence, a retrial was ordered and the case ultimately ended with a rarely used plea deal.

S7  ''It was probably one of the most complex cases we’ve seen, procedurally,'' said Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III, who took over as district attorney the year before Witter was killed.
S8 Murphy said prosecutors in Queens called him about Seeber’s death late Wednesday night.

S9  ''It’s sad, especially in her context, but I can’t say I was surprised,'' Murphy said.
S10 ''She was very troubled her whole life.''

S11  New York City police could not say what led to Seeber’s death.
S12 She was found dead in her 55th Street home in Astoria Tuesday evening.

S13  Police said Seeber had only known Sanchez a few months.

S14  The New York Daily News reported Sanchez confronted Seeber, 32, about her seeing another man and then stabbed her in the torso and face with a kitchen knife.

S15  Both the Daily News and the New York Post reported Sanchez tried to clean up the scene after killing Seeber.
S16 In addition to murder, Sanchez was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, evidence tampering and resisting arrest.

S17  The parole program that oversaw Seeber’s release helped her find housing in Queens.
S18 John Cuilla, the recently retired Saratoga County public defender who represented Seeber since 2000, said Seeber planned on moving to Washington to live with her brother.

S19  ''It’s a tragic ending,'' Cuilla said.
S20 ''It appears that she just could not get out of that cycle of domestic violence.''

S21  Seeber was raised in Rexburg, Idaho, a predominantly Mormon city of 17,000 on the eastern edge of the state.
S22 There, Cuilla said, Seeber’s parents’ troubled marriage first exposed her to domestic violence.

S23  A once-promising student who aspired to a career in the military, Seeber moved to the Capital Region in 1998.
S24 Both prosecutors and Cuilla say Seeber, whose family said she never smoked or drank as a teenager out west, quickly fell in with the wrong crowd.
S25 She started dating Jeffrey Hampshire.
S26 The teenage couple spent most of their time partying.

S27  During one binge in February 2000, Seeber and Hampshire went to Witter’s Mordella Road home in Colonie looking for items to steal and pawn for cash for a hotel party.

S28  A struggle ensued.
S29 Witter was strangled with an electrical cord.

S30  The nonagenarian’s frozen body was found in a snowy ditch in Stillwater, her ankles and feet bound with tape, a gag in her mouth.

S31  Though she was killed in Colonie, the case ended up in Murphy’s hands because the couple crossed into Saratoga County to dispose of the body.

S32  After prosecutors said Seeber unknowingly led detectives to Witter’s body, both Seeber, then 18, and Hampshire, then 19, were charged with murder.

S33  Seeber pleaded guilty.
S34 Hampshire went to trial and was acquitted.
S35 Hampshire, however, was already facing an unrelated burglary charge and would later be arrested for multiple felonies, including helping cover up a fatal hit-and-run crash.

S36  Seeber first unsuccessfully appealed her murder plea in 2004 on the grounds that she was not in the house to commit another crime, a prerequisite for the murder charge.
S37 Then, in 2011, Seeber appealed again when it was found that Gary Veeder, a veteran State Police forensic scientist, had processed some of the evidence in her case.
S38 Veeder committed suicide in 2008 after State Police pressed him about his mishandling of dozens of cases.

S39  Seeber’s conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered.
S40 Seeber, however, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and burglary under the rarely used Alford plea, which allows a defendant to maintain his or her innocence but admit that prosecutors likely could have proven criminal charges at trial.
S41 Seeber was sentenced to 141/2 years in prison in May 2012, but was released later that July because of time served.

S42  At her May 2012 sentencing, Seeber repeatedly apologized to Witter’s family and invoked religion, saying her life had been turned around and that she wanted to work with domestic violence victims after living through a lifetime of volatile relationships.

S43  ''I offer this to you not as an excuse,'' Seeber told Witter’s relatives at her sentencing.
S44 ''But as an explanation to all your questions for all these years.''

S45  Both Murphy and Cuilla said that Seeber had changed since Witter’s killing.

S46  ''In 2000, she was a naive little 18-year-old girl who lived through domestic violence her whole life,'' Cuilla said.
S47 He said he was dismayed that it appeared she had recently fallen into another abusive relationship with Sanchez.
S48 ''I thought she was ready to come out and be a productive member of society.''

S49  Detectives who questioned Seeber in 2000 described her as unremorseful, cold and tough.
S50 Hampshire’s lawyers portrayed Seeber as the mastermind behind Witter’s killing.
S51 In 2005, Hampshire’s then attorney, Cheryl Coleman, described Seeber as ''the single most frightening sociopath I have ever met.''

S52  Murphy noted that not all victims of domestic violence end up as violent offenders themselves.
S53 He also said he and Witter’s family still view Seeber as a killer.

S54  ''Ruth was a very elderly woman who was having her great granddaughter and a friend over for a visit, not to be robbed and killed,'' Murphy said.
S55 ''(Witter’s family) looked upon her as a cold and calculated person who manipulated her great grandmother to try and steal jewelry and money, and if she had to sacrifice (Witter’s) life to get those things that was how it was going to go.''

S56  bfitzgerald(at)timesunion.com - 518-454-5414 - Twitter: (at)BFitzgeraldTU

