BY RYAN O’CONNOR
Melanie Paquette Cooper is attempting to get her prison sentence reduced to a suspended five-year sentence. She was originally sentenced to serve three to six years in jail.
Prosecutors recommended a suspended sentence after she testified against Hopkinton High School friend Eric Windhurst, who was found guilty of killing Cooper’s stepfather in 1985.
Cooper, 37, who pleaded guilty in early December to hindering apprehension, will meet with a panel of three judges on June 15 to request a reduced prison sentence, said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin.
Eric Windhurst is serving a 15-to-36-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in a 2006 trial in which Cooper testified against him.
She claimed to have been with Windhurst, a high school friend, who was then 17 years old, when he fatally shot her stepfather. She was 15 years old at the time.
Windhurst claimed to be motivated by Cooper’s statements that Paquette had sexually assaulted her.
Though she testified that she didn’t believe Windhurst would go through with the murder, she admitted to having been with him at the time.
Strelzin, the prosecutor in the case, recommended a five-year suspended sentence in light of Cooper’s key role in solving the case.
“It was in recognition, primarily, of her cooperation in the case that allowed us to solve the 20-year-old unsolved murder,” said Strelzin. “We also considered who she was at the time, and a lack of criminal history and what she’s done with her life since.”
But Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn refused to accept the recommendation, instead sentencing her to three to six years behind bars and away from her husband and five children, who currently live out of state.
Though Cooper’s attorney, Paul McDonough, was unavailable for comment, Strelzin said the state will stand behind its original recommendation for a suspended sentence.
He acknowledged that the panel of judges may raise the sentence, lower it or leave it the same.
“That’s the risk she’s taking,” said Strelzin, who noted the original sentence is usually upheld in such cases.