Karl Knapp said nothing before an Albuquerque judge
sentenced him today to 76 years in prison for a terrorizing rampage that
left three people dead and many others shattered.
"One person should not be allowed to do so much
damage," Assistant District Attorney Judith Faviell said in asking state
District Judge Albert S. "Pat" Murdoch to render the maximum sentence.
Murdoch complied, ordering Knapp, 49, to serve two
consecutive life terms for the Jan. 3, 2003, first-degree murders of his
estranged girlfriend, Jane Johnston, 42, and her boss, Steve Goodwin,
49. The life terms are 30 years each.
Knapp will also serve 15 years for the second-degree
murder of Greg Maguire, 49, an employee at a neighboring business. A
firearm enhancement included with that charge added another year.
Knapp will also serve the maximum sentences,
including firearm enhancements, for each of the 18 remaining charges for
which a jury convicted him on Thursday.
Those sentences will run concurrently with the murder
sentences - a total of 76 years.
Knapp, who gave a nod to an unidentified woman in the
courtroom before being led away in handcuffs, declined to speak before
his sentencing. His attorney, Jeff Rein, told the court Knapp did not
want his words to detract from the proceedings.
But friends and family of the three victims had
plenty to say, one of them calling Knapp "one of Satan's best."
"We have been waiting 589 days to close a chapter in
my life and will try to move forward," said Johnston's 18-year-old
daughter, Samantha Johnston.
The teen said her mother's death was especially
wrenching because Knapp knew that the teen's father was dying of cancer
and that the slaying would leave her and her two siblings orphaned.
Her father died 14 months after the shootings, she
said.
Goodwin's wife, Roberta Goodwin, told the court that
today her husband would have celebrated his 51st birthday. But instead
of cake and candles, she would be buying flowers to lay at his grave.
Maguire's brother, Brian Maguire, spoke of lives
broken, of washing the blood from his brother's glasses, of cringing
still every time his cell phone rings, fearful the news on the other end
will be just as devastating as it was that night.
"There will be no closure for the victims," he said.
"There will be no understanding of the actions of Karl Knapp."
The shootings took place at Posh Limited, a window
furnishings store where Johnston and Goodwin worked, and then spilled
out toward neighboring Poulin Design Remodeling, where employee Maguire
was shot.
Employees at both stores near near Washington Street
and Prospect Avenue Northeast recalled during the two-week trial their
moments of terror when they crouched behind workstations or ran outside
as bullets flew.
One of the Poulin employees recently died of a heart
attack, possibly because he had to relive the trauma of that day by
testifying at Knapp's trial, Faviell said she learned this weekend.
"And all of this was done with no remorse, not then
and not now," said Maguire's wife, Jill Coppedge.
Prosecutors Faviell and Julie Altwies contend Knapp
had calculated the killings for months after his 2-year relationship
with Johnston disintegrated.
Defense attorneys Rein and Mark Horton argued the
shootings were spontaneous, alcohol-fueled acts that deserved only
second-degree murder convictions.
