Confessed murderer Julius C. Franquet avoided a 25 years-to-life sentence for pleading guilty to killing his live-in girlfriend last December, but not by much.
State Supreme Court Judge Penny Wolfgang gave Franquet 20 years-to-life for the charge of second-degree murder and another 16 months-to-four years in prison for the attempted assault of a prison guard at the Erie County Holding Center. Franquet pleaded guilty to the charges against him after three days of testimony in his murder trial.
In the days following Annmarie Paciorek’s death, Franquet told Town of Tonawanda police he intentionally gave the woman a lethal dose of prescription painkillers. But he recanted that confession and took the case all the way to trial before finally entering a guilty plea.
Paciorek’s family testified at the hearing, saying they’d never be able to forgive Franquet for his actions, and Wolfgang said the world would never know where Paciorek would have gone with the graduate degree she had almost completed.
In other court news, Kevin L. Allen was sentenced to 25 years to life for his role in a 2006 shooting. Allen provided the gun used to kill Lamar D. Williams and pointed out the man to the shooter, who was actually looking for someone else.
Allen will begin serving the sentence in 2017, after finishing a stint for an armed robbery. Allen was accused of another armed robbery in the Town of Tonawanda in 2007.
Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.
Local News
November 19, 2009
TOWN OF TONAWANDA: Franquet given 20 to life
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