Law High School killer gets 25 years

Christopher Plaskon, seen here with his attorney Edward Gavin, appears in Superior Court in Milford, Conn. March 7, 2016. Plaskon pleaded no contest in the 2014 murder of classmate Maren Sanchez at Jonathan Law High School, in Milford. less Christopher Plaskon, seen here with his attorney Edward Gavin, appears in Superior Court in Milford, Conn. March 7, 2016. Plaskon pleaded no contest in the 2014 murder of classmate Maren Sanchez at Jonathan Law ... more Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 59 Caption Close Law High School killer gets 25 years 1 / 59 Back to Gallery

MILFORD — When it came time for Christopher Plaskon to address the family of the girl he murdered two years ago, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

“If you have anything to say, this is your chance,” Superior Court Judge John Ronan asked Plaskon at his sentencing hearing Monday in Milford.

“No, thank you, your honor,” said Plaskon, who was handcuffed and in a yellow prison outfit.

He was then sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2014 stabbing death of 16-year-old Jonathan Law High School junior Maren Sanchez.

The girl’s mother, Donna Cimarelli, had plenty to say to the court.

Her voice shaking and her eyes welling with tears, Cimarelli said her close relationship with her daughter began even before Sanchez was born, because doctors said she might have either spina bifida or Down syndrome.

“Then the phone call came — the call that I had been praying for,” Cimarelli said. “My doctor told me that my amnio was clear. I knew then that Maren would be someone special, and she has been the sunshine of my life ever since.”

Cimarelli said that as her daughter grew up, she brought happiness to everyone who knew her.

“I told her that she would be president some day — she never got to do that, but she was president of her freshman and sophomore classes,” she said. “She brightened the day of everyone, even those who were overlooked by others.”

A plea of no contest

One of those overlooked people Sanchez tried to help was Plaskon, a boy who, according to Ronan, had been getting psychological help for most of his teenage years. However, State’s Attorney Kevin D. Lawlor, the prosecutor in the case, said Plaskon “would not have met the state’s standard” for an insanity defense, had the case gone to trial.

On the morning of April 25, 2014, Cimarelli got another call that would change her life. The voice on the other end, someone from Law High School, said her daughter had been rushed to the hospital after being stabbed in the neck and chest.

“I got to the hospital and I kept saying to myself, ‘This is not real — things like this only happen in movies,’ ” Cimarelli said. “But is was real. I was told that nothing more could be done and that she had slipped away. And then I saw her — lying there like a lifeless angel, with blood at the corner of her mouth.”

The victim was stabbed to death on the day of the Law High Junior Prom, to which, the prosecution said, Sanchez had declined Plaskon’s invitation. Lawlor said security video showed Plaskon arriving to school early that morning and wandering about the hallways, waiting for his victim. When he met up with Maren, he followed her into a stairwell and, out of sight of the cameras, stabbed her in the chest and neck.

Plaskon pleaded no contest in March 2016 to killing the victim with a steak knife.

A week after that plea, the Sanchez family has filed a lawsuit against the Milford Board of Education and city of Milford, as well as Christopher Plaskon and his parents, David and Kathleen Plaskon. The suit claims officials failed to heed the teenage girl’s warnings that Plaskon was emotionally disturbed and could be dangerous.

The small courtroom was packed Monday with about 50 onlookers, with Plaskon’s family sitting on one side, and Sanchez’s family on the other.

Cimarelli said “unbearable grief” after her daughter’s murder had forced her to stop working.

“No longer would I hear my daughter come in the front door after school shouting ‘Hey mom — I’m home!’ ” she said. “I half expected to hear that again in the days and weeks that followed, but the sound of her voice never came.”

She said that world lost a young lady who had “unbound potential,” and that she’s planning to create a foundation in her daughter’s name, one that will help victims of physiological and physical manipulation.

‘Fair and just sentence’

The girl’s family said that they are not happy with the sentence, noting that Plaskon could be out of prison on parole while still in his early 30s. Jose Sanchez, the victim’s father, said that Plaskon, who is 19, will likely get out while “still a young man.”

Jose Sanchez and Cimarelli are divorced, and he and Maren were together on most weekends.

“She loved to go to museums,” he said. “We must have been to to every museum between Boston and New York — Florida, too.”

Maren’s family, he said, “will be sentenced again” when Plaskon is released from the penitentiary.

Lawlor said, though, that Plaskon’s no-contest plea had spared the victim’s family the pain of a protracted jury trial. Given the fact that Plaskon was a juvenile at the time of the murder, the 25-year sentence was about “the best that we could hope to achieve under these circumstances,” the prosecutor said.

He added that it “was a fair and just sentence,” although he admitted, it was one the victim’s friends and family were not happy with.

Lawlor said Plaskon would likely be placed in a unit with inmates who are under 20 years old, although it wasn’t immediately clear where. Ifficials said he is not being placed in a psychiatric facility.

Court officials said Plaskon could be released on parole after serving 15 years, or 60 percent of the sentence, because of his age at the time of the crime. Ronan said the victim’s family would be told of Plaskon’s parole hearings so they can tell the state Board of Pardons and Paroles their concerns.

“Parole is not a given,” Ronan said. “It’s a possibility, and I understand how you feel.”