The Massachusetts man who fatally stabbed his wife and sent photos of her body to friends, saying he had killed her and needed someone to care for their children, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Christopher Fratantonio, 37, of Cotuit, Massachusetts, received the mandatory sentence of life without parole following his first-degree murder conviction Friday for killing his wife, Mary Fratantonio, 35, inside their home in February 2017.
Deliberation took just two hours and the jury found that Christopher had committed Mary’s murder with both premeditation, extreme atrocity and cruelty.
Christopher Fratantonio, 37 (in 2017), was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of first-degree murder in his wife, Mary Fratantonio’s death in February 2017
When police arrived at their Massachusetts home, they found a chef’s knife still in Mary’s neck. Christopher reportedly told police he had used the knife to repeatedly stab her
Christopher was charged with murder after repeatedly stabbing Mary to death while she was in bed in their home. When police arrived, they found the chef’s knife Christopher had used, still buried in Mary’s neck.
The couple’s six-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were in the home at the time of the murder.
According to a report written by a state police trooper, Christopher gave authorities who arrived at his home a detailed description of why and how he killed Mary, a special education teacher.
During the trial, it was revealed that, shortly after killing her, Christopher had taken two picture of his dead wife with his cell phone and sent them to a few friends, saying that he had killed Mary and would need someone to look after their kids.
The two-year-old boy was said to have been near Mary’s bloody body in one of the pictures, but that Christopher had cropped him out of the shot when he sent out the photo.
A psychiatrist said that at the time of the stabbing, Christopher was not suffering from a mental disease or impaired capacity and that he had deliberated prior to killing Mary.
Mary was the mother of Christopher’s two children. Prosecutors said he sent pictures of Mary’s body to friends, saying he had killed her and needed someone to look after the kids
Before stabbing her, Christopher ‘picked up the knife and put it down, went outside and had a cigarette. He was debating,’ Dr. Martin Kelly, a witness for the prosecution, said, according to the Cape Cod Times.
Christopher had apparently told police that Mary was cruel and demanding. He also reportedly told authorities that she had denigrated him when he failed to get her the drugs she needed to fuel an addiction.
Mary’s parents testified during the trial that Christopher, a flooring contractor, had a history of terrorizing their daughter and trying to control her.
Christopher’s defense team said that Christopher suffered from PTSD due to sexual abuse experienced as a child and that he had had two concussions, in addition to anxiety, depression and a dependence disorder that was focused on Mary.
To rebut claims that Christopher, who did not testify, had acted with premeditation and deliberation, his lawyers pointed to a statement he made to police.
‘I wasn’t even going to do it; I didn’t want to do it. I’d rather I had done it to myself,’ he was quoted as saying after the slaying.
The defense also introduced a forensic psychiatrist who said that stabbing his wife had been a ‘primitive emotion,’ which stunted his ability to act in a rational manner.
Police arrived at the Cotuit home at about 1am, after receiving multiple 911 calls, with at least one neighbor reporting that noises were coming from the home past midnight and requesting a check on the family, WBZ-TV reported.
During his sentencing impact statement, Mary’s brother, Ian McClatchey, called Christopher ‘a savage psychopath’ and ‘a violent predator.’
‘He let his own children see their mother’s body torn apart at his hands,’ McClatchey was quoted as saying.
Mary’s stepfather, Thomas Kilbourne, said he and her mother, Joan, now have custody of their two grandchildren and would be giving them ‘security, safety, love and care so they can deal with what they have to deal with.’
Kilbourne also noted that, ‘I’m going to be 90 years old when Lucas graduates.’
The judge handed down the maximum sentence for Christopher — life in prison without the possibility of parole. In Massachusetts, all first-degree murder convictions are automatically sent for appeal to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
A GoFundMe fundraiser, created by Mary’s stepfather to cover the childrens’ educational and health care costs, has raised $71,900 since it was started in March 2017, well above its $25,000 goal.