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the sorrow and the anger that I feel is I think is palpable in this courtroom it's still raw after eight
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years I don't know of any way to adequately address the pain felt by a parent who loses a child whether that
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child is an infant a juvenile or an adult I wish I could provide closure to the family and friends by what I do this
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morning but that's really beyond my pow as a to do I can't provide a adequate explanation for why Nicole Pizza is
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dead I would suggest that the mother's forgiveness is a step in that direction of closure Miss Snider uh I think you
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recognize that the anger that you carry with you probably eats at you as much as
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it eats at him and that going through that period of resolution and forgiveness is probably the first step
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toward healing we all heard ample testimony concerning Nicole's medical history her
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struggle with prescription drugs her addiction and her visits to AA and her efforts to recover you were well aware
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of her struggle you knew full well when you married her that she had that struggle and you knew it through the
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course of the marriage what I found particularly appalling prior to the date of her death
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was a testimony that in a nightclub without her knowledge you placed an illegal substance in her drink you did
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it for the purpose of inducing her to perform a public sex act on you the rest of it that you did with
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other women was not criminal likely what you did to your wife that night was criminal giving
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someone illegal drugs against their consent and knowledge is probably an assault had you done it to a woman not
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your wife it would probably have been raped in the second degree the state didn't charge those offenses at the very
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least I regard it an act of domestic violence against your spouse I think it showed given her
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addiction your utter disregard for her safety and her well-being you don't spite an addict's
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drink with drugs if you care about them you don't know what spiral you'll put them
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into you did it for your own personal sexual satisfaction and I found that when I heard the testimony absolutely
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abhorent and criminal I don't know what happened on January 27th 2006 when you got home and we don't know what
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confrontation led to Nicole's death whether it was over finances over your history with other women over her
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discovery that I do not know what we do know from the evidence is that you kills your wife at very
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close range within an arms length the inference is that she was able to look into your eyes when you did
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it and that the resulting death took a course of several minutes rather than a few
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seconds I don't know what was going through her head as she looked into the face of the man she thought she
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loved as he took her life away I cannot conceive of her thoughts at that moment I I don't
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know we do know that after the death you carefully planned to cover up the complicity and the murder you misled the
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family you added to the tragedy that they were already feeling and ultimately it fell apart and
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I suspect that you found out that you're you weren't quite as smart as you thought you
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were and we standing here today but the evidence is pretty clear that as you committed the ACT you had
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plenty of time to think of it as you looked into your wife's eyes this is the first case I've tried where it was so
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close personal and lasted so long as a murder in the second degree and in my judgment that placees
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it within the category of those offenses at the most aggravated end of the fence those are the factors I've
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considered accordingly the sentence will be at the high end of the standard range
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220 months there'll be 24 to 36 months of community custody victim penalty assessment DNA and a lifetime
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prohibition this concludes this matter the court is now in recess pleas look