A Connecticut man has been sentenced to 48 years in prison for orchestrating the stabbing deaths of his stepmother and her mother in a 2020 attack that also wounded his father, in retribution for what he claimed were years of abuse.
Charles Dzurenka Jr., 20, apologized and said he deserved the sentence during a hearing in Hartford Superior Court on Tuesday, the Journal Inquirer reported. His girlfriend, Makenzie Bezio, also was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for conspiring in the attack.
FLORIDA TO EXECUTE PRISONER FOR 1986 FATAL STABBING OF WOMAN
Dzurenka's stepmother, Marianne Dzurenka, 55, and her mother, Sandra Marci, 78, were stabbed multiple times in the Dzurenka's home in Windsor on May 11, 2020. Dzurenka's father, Charles Dzurenka Sr., also was stabbed but survived.
Prosecutors said the younger Dzurenka, who was 17 at the time of the killings, arranged to have his friend, Terry Brown Jr., kill his father and stepmother, who Dzurenka claimed abused him for years. In exchange, Brown could take anything in the house, authorities said.
Brown, who also was 17 at the time, was sentenced to 58 years in prison last year on murder and other charges. He, Dzurenka and Bezio all pleaded guilty in the case.
Marianne Dzurenka's family disputed her stepson's abuse allegations, saying she took care of him, drove him to appointments and helped him with his homework.
The family's lawyer, Jacqueline Reardon, read statements on their behalf in court.
"For all their kindness and a lifetime of family devotion, they were brutally stabbed to death in their own home, stabbed over 20 times over a 5½-hour-long period of time, attacked, bleeding out, and scared, begging for their lives," Reardon said.
Bezio's lawyer read a statement by Bezio saying she is "forever remorseful for the victims."
