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June 29, 2006

Hammer hitman gets 30-year sentence

WARWICK -- The man who was paid to kill a Coventry woman and badly injured her with a claw hammer was sentenced this morning to serve 30 years in prison.

Thomas M. Kenna pleaded guilty in January -- on the day his trial was to begin -- to assaulting Kris M. Sao Bento at her Coventry home two years ago, while her infant son played nearby.

Kenna, an acknowledged drug addict, was hired by Sao Bento's ex-husband, Thomas J. Lewis, to commit the crime. Earlier in the month, Lewis was given the same sentence that Kenna received this morning.

Both men were facing a maximum sentence of 35 years to serve, according to terms outlined in plea bargains. Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg sentenced them both to 60 years in prison, 30 to serve.

"In my eyes, you are nothing less than a depraved assassin," Thunberg said to Kenna at today's hearing.

Sao Bento and her mother were in the front row of the courtroom today. Prosecutors showed pictures of her bloodied face and head on an easel to encourage a harsh sentence.

Kenna made a brief statement before his sentence was handed down, apologizing to his victim.

Read a previous Journal story about the case.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 11:50 AM | Permalink

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