Ten years of abuse helped shave 12 years off a potential prison term for a Pueblo woman who killed her husband.
Sonia Mitchell, 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the killing of Brian Swartz in the summer of 2009.
Over the course of nearly two days of testimony this week, Mitchell and her friends recounted a stormy, 10-year-relationship marked by terror and torture.
Mitchell told the court Thursday that the decade of emotional and physical abuse culminated in a sexual assault the night she killed Swartz, 30.
But District Judge David Crockenberg said Mitchell's behavior in the weeks following Swartz's death made him hesitate to believe all of her story from that night and led him to decide on a sentence that fell in the middle of the range she faced.
In June, Mitchell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the heat of passion and faced between 10 and 32 years.
Three others have been convicted as accessories to murder for helping her bury Swartz's body in a shallow grave west of Pueblo, then working to cover up the crime for weeks.
"I believe she had reason to be afraid of Mr. Swartz, but the problem with what happened that particular night is that Brian Swartz is not here to testify," Crockenberg said. "I also agree that if Miss Mitchell said why she did it, charges may have never been filed. But her actions after lead me to believe that her version of events wasn't accurate."
Crockenberg noted that police gave Mitchell numerous opportunities to come clean about the abuse and her reaction to it that night, but she never did.
Instead, Mitchell misled police for weeks, broke into her husband's safe for money and guns and even told police during an interview that if her husband was dead, she wanted her children to be able to stand on his grave and say goodbye.
Swartz's family continued to deny any knowledge of his violent behavior Friday.
His mother, Deborah Hibbert, told the court that there was only one time that it appeared Mitchell was bruised and Swartz caused it. She said she confronted both about it and told Mitchell to tell her if it ever happened again.
She also told the court about a time when the couple's child appeared sick and lethargic and tests eventually revealed the presence of marijuana in the child's bloodstream.
But Hibbert was confronted with a court transcripts of a hearing that followed that incident, which detailed her own statements about concerns over Swartz's violent behavior, threats toward her and the possibility that Swartz broke into her home.
Hibbert denied any memory of making those statements.
She told the court she didn't believe there was so much abuse or that Mitchell's friends and family couldn't find the help she needed when there were any number of resources in the community designed for that purpose.
Like the rest of her family, Hibbert pleaded for the maximum sentence under the agreement.
"They robbed me and my family and her own children the dignity of burying my son," she said.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Toole argued that the district attorney's office had already considered the abusive past when it offered Mitchell the opportunity to plead to second-degree murder.
He also noted that Mitchell maintained her story that Swartz had been kidnapped by four Mexican nationals until she was actually arrested for murder.
Mitchell's attorney, Michael Emmons, argued that Mitchell was a 14-year-old, seventh-grade girl when Swartz, then 20, got together with her.
From then, she essentially lived as Swartz's slave, he said.
"Sonia Mitchell did what she did," Emmons said. "She did try to cover it up and I think that's really why we're here."
Crockenberg gave Mitchell credit for about two years she's served in Pueblo County Jail.
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