By JENNA CARLESSO
The Hartford Courant
December 22, 2009
HARTFORD —
Through heavy sobs, Kimberly Baillargeon glanced across a courtroom at the man who stabbed her sister to death and asked him why.
"She was murdered by a man she loved — How is that possible?" she asked. "As my family went throughout the [court] system, some questions have been answered, but not many. Why would you hurt her and leave her for dead?"
But she and the many other relatives of Patricia Woodland who gathered in Superior Court Monday received only an apology from Bruce King, who was then sentenced to 33 years in prison.
King, 47, pleaded guilty in September to killing Woodland, his longtime girlfriend. He told police they had been arguing over his share of the rent payment when she was stabbed Feb. 21, 2008, outside their Windsor apartment, but said he didn't remember if he stabbed her or pulled her back onto the knife, according to court documents.
The two, both drunk at the time, were bickering over money when Woodland grabbed a large kitchen knife and took a swing at him, King told officers. He wrestled the knife away from her, and as she left the apartment screaming for help, he ran the knife into her back.
King fled the apartment but turned himself in to police the next day.
He told Judge David P. Gold on Monday that the stabbing was an accident.
"Please understand ... it was not intentional. I can honestly say that what happened was not my fault alone."
He went on to describe his tumultuous relationship with Woodland, one in which they would fight incessantly but always "kiss and make up." King said they clung to each other for support through their drug habits.
Through tears, he asked Woodland's family for forgiveness.
"I am very sorry for ... the life I have ended," he said. "I made a bad judgment call. I can't bring her back."
Prosecutor Dennis O'Connor urged Gold not to accept King's claims, however. He said the slaying couldn't have been accidental, since Woodland was stabbed once in the back and again in front — a wound that measured more than 6 inches deep and penetrated her chest cavity. She was found lying face down in the snow outside their Mack Street home.
O'Connor also pointed out King's criminal history, which included numerous drug charges and assault and threatening convictions.
Gold sentenced King to what he said would likely be the rest of his life.
"The ripple effect of the act on that day — it is so broad," Gold said. "Mr. King, you may have taken one life with your actions, but you've destroyed I don't know how many lives."
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
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