By Barbara Vitello | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 3/11/2010 2:24 PM | Updated: 3/11/2010 11:46 PM
Almost 21/2 years after her murder, justice came for Arlington Heights resident Dana Mangi, a young woman with a strong character and infectious personality whom her mother described as "beautiful inside and out."
The Prospect High School graduate was two weeks away from starting veterinary school in August 2007 when Patrick Ford cut her dreams short and shattered the lives of her family and friends.
Authorities say the 28-year-old Chicago man never explained why he killed Mangi, who had dated him when they attended Loyola University. Still, her loved ones got some relief Thursday after Ford pleaded guilty but mentally ill to charges of first-degree murder in the strangulation and stabbing death of the 2004 Loyola graduate, who earned a master's degree to improve her chances of getting accepted into veterinary school.
In exchange for Ford's plea, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Charles Burns sentenced him to 35 years in prison.
"For the life of me, I don't understand this," said Burns, referring to the inexplicable motive.
"Whatever sentence I could give you could not turn back the hands of time and bring Dana Mangi back to her loved ones," Burns said. He said 35 years means exactly that, adding that defendants convicted of first-degree murder do not qualify for any kind of sentence reduction, though Ford will be credited with the 970 days he's been in custody since his arrest.
Dana's mother, Barbara Mangi, sat clutching the hand of her husband Joseph as Assistant State's Attorney Michael Falagario related the events of Aug. 19, 2007.
Ford called police about 5:22 p.m. from his home on the 1000 block of Grace Street and told them he killed someone and then tried to slit his wrists. Police found Mangi strangled with an extension cord and stabbed in the chest with a barbecue fork, Falagario said.
They took Ford to a hospital for treatment for self-inflicted wounds and then read him his Miranda rights, at which time Ford admitted killing Mangi but said "he didn't know why," Falagario said.
The prosecution said the defendant admitted to a detective that he choked Mangi with his hands but claimed he didn't remember choking her with the cord or stabbing her.
Falagario also introduced testimony from forensic psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist who evaluated Ford for sanity and fitness. Both prosecution and defense experts found Ford suffered from a personality disorder and that he abused alcohol and cannabis, which resulted in depression.
But each determined that he was legally sane at the time of the crime, despite suffering from a mental illness.
The court granted Ford's request that he deliver his apology to the Mangi family face to face.
"I know my words can't help you," he said. "I swear I never meant to do what I did - and I'll keep you in my prayers forever."
In her victim impact statement, Barbara Mangi told the court that her daughter "took her job of being an annoying younger sister seriously." But when she "embraced someone as a friend, she gave 200 percent of herself."
The young woman who danced and sang in her high school choir and enjoyed playing softball and diving epitomized persistence, said her older sister Sarah.
Rather than give up after receiving two rejections from veterinary schools, Dana Mangi completed her master's degree in biomedical sciences. And on her third try, she earned admission into the veterinary program at the University of Minnesota.
"I went to bed with a sister and woke up the next day an only child," said Sarah Mangi, who tearfully recalled watching her father's grief at his inability to "protect his baby girl."
The trauma resulting from Ford's "heinous, senseless act" will last a lifetime, Barbara Mangi said. "All of us had a piece of ourselves ripped out that day."
Yet, she said, "I refuse to live a life of hate or revenge."
Instead, Mangi said, she will remember proudly an accomplished young woman who enriched the lives of those who knew her.
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