SKOWHEGAN — A former high school music teacher from Pittsfield will serve three years in prison and then wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for two years on convictions earlier this month for domestic violence assaults against his then-girlfriend.
Andrew Maderios, 29, was sentenced to 15 years with all but three years suspended and six years of probation with the first two of those years to include electronic monitoring.
Outside the Somerset County Superior Court after the sentencing, District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said the victim is pleased with the sentence.
“She does feel it will be able to keep her safe,” Maloney said.
Maloney said the victim, who during testimony Monday said Maderios put her in fear of her life, is also happy that Maderios has been ordered to undergo psychological evaluation and treatment and to enter the certified batterers intervention program.
Maloney said the sentence also puts her mind at ease. “He’ll be tucked away from the victim for at least five years,” she said. “I was concerned what he would do when he left prison. With electronic monitoring, I don’t have that concern because we’re able to know where he is at all times.”
The sentence, by Justice Robert Mullen, prompted crying and hugging from dozens of Maderios’ family members who attended the proceedings, many from out of state. Maderios, a former teacher at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, was whisked away from the courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence.
Before that, Maderios himself stood Monday, tearfully saying his dream of being a music teacher, a husband and a father had all been dashed.
But it was Maderios’ apparent lack of remorse and inability to take responsibility for his actions that moved Mullen to impose the long prison sentence. Mullen said he took into account letters of support for Maderios, but because Maderios continued to blame the victim, Mullen said he had no choice but to impose the 15-year suspended sentence.
Maloney had asked for a 15-year sentence with all but six years suspended on Maderios’ conviction of two counts of felony aggravated assault and two counts of domestic violence assault. He was tried on nine charges, and the convictions were on charges related to attacks recorded by the victim, who was his live-in girlfriend at the time, on her cellphone.
The 12-person jury deliberated Sept. 4 for about two hours and 20 minutes before coming back with guilty verdicts on Maderios, who was charged with beating, kicking and strangling the victim over several months, from December 2013 to July 2014.
She documented the attacks at the Pittsfield home the couple shared with audio recordings and still photographs, all on her iPhone, which became key evidence in the five-day trial.
The victim, who the Morning Sentinel is not identifying, spoke in court Monday before the sentencing, telling the judge it has been hard for her to tell her story while more than 50 of Maderios’ friends, family and former students sat behind her.
“I thought he was the perfect guy,” she told Mullen. “It all seemed to fit in place.”
But it got to be, she said, that the only plan for her and her two daughters was to “make it through each day.”
“The fear of dying was overwhelming,” she said, her voice quivering on every word. She said she was sorry she “brought a monster” into her children’s lives.
In pleading for a more lenient sentence, Maderios’ lawyer, Leonard Sharon, said risk assessments listed by Maloney were meaningless charts that could not accurately predict future violence on the part of Maderios. He said Maderios never violated his bail conditions.
Sharon said the fact that Maderios had insisted on his innocence all along the judge considered a lack of remorse, and for that, a five-day trial was held and the sentence was longer than if he had pleaded guilty right away.
“The plea negotiations began with an offer of four years in, which is less than we got,” Sharon said. “We realize when you don’t plead guilty early on, when you take the witness stand, that weighs very heavily against greater leniency. You have to fight, you fight politely, and if you don’t, you waive your client’s rights.”
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Sharon introduced each of the family members present, music boosters and friends, noting that some had traveled three or four hours by charter bus to be there. He produced a packet of letters supporting Maderios.
Family members declined to comment following the court hearing.
Bob Maderios, Maderios’ father, told the judge that his son is a family man and not capable of the violence he was convicted of.
“He is my son and my best friend,” Bob Maderios said.
The sentencing came after a separate decision Monday morning by Mullen to deny a motion for a new trial. Sharon had argued that new evidence showed the victim had made similar claims of abuse against another man, her former husband. Sharon alleged that Maderios was set up by the victim and that evidence from the former husband saying she had done the same thing to him supports Maderios’ defense.
A letter to the presiding judge from Stephen LaMarre, the victim’s former husband, said that the victim in the Maderios trial sent him threatening text messages once it was learned he might be called to testify in Maderios’ defense. LaMarre alleged that the woman had been physically violent with him in the past and injured herself “in an effort to set him up.”
Mullen rejected the plea for a new trial, based first on the fact that LaMarre was not present in court Monday and therefore could not be challenged by Maloney or Assistant District Attorney Brent Davis.
In addition, Maloney told the judge the details in LaMarre’s letter to the court were not true and were alleged to have happened more than 10 years ago.
Mullen said his ruling on Aug. 31 not to accept statements of “prior bad acts” by LaMarre would stand.
Sharon said with “good time” in prison — meaning not getting into trouble — Maderios could end up serving less than three years. If Maderios violates his probation once he is released on probation, he faces the possibility of serving part or all of the remaining 12 years of the original sentence.
Sharon said he plans to appeal the verdicts.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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