Vladimir Fisenko wanted the man who killed his only daughter sent to prison for life, saying all he has left of Margarita Fisenko Scott is her gravestone.

“But it will bring nothing back,” Fisenko said in Russian at the sentencing hearing Wednesday for Anthony Pratt Jr., who had been convicted of shooting 29-year-old Margarita Fisenko Scott, putting her body inside her SUV and leaving it in a motel parking lot.

In the end, Justice Thomas Warren sentenced the 21-year-old Pratt to 42 years in prison for shooting his lover once through the neck in a Portland apartment in 2012.

The judge did not think a life sentence was appropriate, saying Pratt’s youth and his participation in classes while in jail demonstrated an ability to be rehabilitated.

Warren did, however, adopt a sentence within the range of 40 to 45 years suggested by the prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Marchese.

“This was a heinous, brutal crime,” Marchese told the judge. “And there has been absolutely no demonstration of remorse to you whatsoever. … Where there is no remorse, no rehabilitation is going to happen.”

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The jury apparently gave little weight to arguments made by Pratt’s attorneys that two other people, Christopher Jennings and his wife, Tunile, left their own DNA on the grip and trigger of the .40-caliber handgun used to kill Scott. The defense also argued that Christopher Jennings was the last person to have sex with Scott before she was killed, and that just hours before Scott died, Tunile Jennings threatened to kill her if she ever had sex with Christopher Jennings.

One of Pratt’s attorneys, Dylan Boyd, argued Wednesday for a sentence of 28 years in prison, slightly above the statutory minimum of 25 years.

“This is not a violent person by personality,” Boyd said. “This is a crime of impulse and emotion by a very young man. Anthony was 19 years old at the time of the crime.”

Pratt, dressed in a yellow jail uniform, declined to speak at the hearing.

“No, your honor,” he said softly when he was asked whether he wanted to address the court.

Four members of Scott’s family, including her father, spoke at the hearing, asking that Pratt be sentenced to the maximum of life in prison. Scott’s husband, to whom she was married when she died, now lives in another state and was not in court. He submitted a letter to the court for the judge to consider, the judge said.

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Scott’s cousin, Rita Hillard, recalled the day in 1997 when she and Margarita Fisenko, also called Rita, emigrated from their native Kazakhstan to join family in the United States.

“It was a day filled with hope and optimism for a new life. Unfortunately, Rita was not able to fulfill that dream. Her life was taken from her,” Hillard said. “Our family will never be the same. Family get-togethers and gatherings will be marked by her absence.”

Hillard translated for Scott’s father as he addressed the court in his native Russian.

“My wife and I, nobody will ever replace Rita for us. We cry all of the time for her,” Fisenko said.

Hillard read aloud a statement from her own mother, Katerina Stikina, Scott’s aunt, seeking a life sentence for Pratt.

“He inflicted unbearable pain to all of our family and friends,” Hillard read. “Rita will never call or come over. We will never hear her cheering voice again.”

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Another of Scott’s aunts, Emma Kurchin, addressed the court, calling her niece’s death a “terrible tragedy.”

“I cannot believe she is gone. She was not only my niece, but part of me that is now missing,” she said.

The jury found Pratt guilty of shooting Scott on Nov. 11, 2012, in the living room of an apartment at 266 West Concord St., where Pratt was living with the Jenningses, whom he knew from New York City. Police said Pratt killed Scott while the Jenningses were out at nightclubs between 1 and 3 a.m., cleaned up the blood and disposed of Scott’s body before they got home.

Scott’s husband, Cary Scott, testified that he didn’t know his wife was dead until he discovered her body more than two months later in the back of a Chevrolet Trailblazer in the parking lot of Motel 6 on Riverside Street in Portland.

Police and other witnesses said Pratt had followed Scott to the Westbrook apartment she shared with her husband the day before the murder and assaulted her for returning to her husband. A police officer’s photograph of Scott from that day showed her bruised and in the same clothes she was wearing when her body was found.

Witnesses testified that Pratt and Christopher Jennings were crack cocaine dealers who smuggled drugs from New York to sell in Portland. Pratt became romantically involved with Scott after she bought drugs from him.

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Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Marchese said she was pleased with the sentence and that the judge largely agreed with her argument.

“When a person is killed, murdered (in) domestic violence, I am so pleased to see the court taking that as a significant aggravating factor,” Marchese said. “It is important for people to know that they have the right to leave a relationship and do it safely, without being killed.”

Another of Pratt’s attorneys, Peter Cyr, said after the sentencing hearing that he expected to file an appeal on Pratt’s behalf challenging both the jury’s guilty verdict Oct. 9 and the judge’s sentence.

Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: @scottddolan


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