Man sentenced in death of Greene County woman
WAYNESBURG – With tears running down her cheeks, Toni Kennedy addressed the man who strangled her daughter last fall, asking him why he had to end her life. Kennedy said the death of her daughter, Vicki Kennedy, has reduced her to “good memories and nightmares” of what happened.
“You devastated our lives forever, and we were good to you,” she told Avery L. Pritchett, the man who admitted to strangling Kennedy on Sept. 28, 2004.
On Monday in Greene County Court, Pritchett was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison, the maximum sentence he could receive for third-degree murder. Pritchett, 20, of Jefferson, pleaded guilty to the slaying earlier this year.
Pritchett, Kennedy said, stayed with the family, or with family friends or relatives at her daughter’s behest. Not long before Vicki Kennedy was killed, she got a job so that she could pay for a place for her and Pritchett to live, her mother said.
“If I could sell my soul to the devil to bring her back, I would,” Kennedy said.
Pritchett did not meet Kennedy’s eyes during her emotional statement, sitting with his head down in the courtroom Monday.
Pritchett opted not to testify during the sentencing hearing, but his attorney asked Greene County President Judge H. Terry Grimes to remember the emotional interview with police when Pritchett expressed remorse.
Pritchett strangled Kennedy at an abandoned house on Washington Street in Jefferson Township. Authorities found her body the next day.
He pleaded guilty to a single count of criminal homicide in August, and during a September hearing, Grimes determined he was guilty of third-degree murder.
Grimes had to determine the degree of guilt because Pritchett pleaded guilty generally. The charge of criminal homicide encompasses both murder and manslaughter. Pritchett’s attorney, Michael Bigley, argued for a voluntary manslaughter conviction and District Attorney Marjorie Fox asked for the stiffer conviction of first-degree murder.
Testimony at Pritchett’s hearing in September painted a picture of the young couple arguing the evening Kennedy was killed. The two stopped at the abandoned house, and testimony indicated that Kennedy hit Pritchett at least one time in the face during their argument.
Pritchett testified that Kennedy pushed him into the basement, and he choked her to keep her from hitting him.
After the strangulation, police said that Pritchett put Kennedy face first into a 30-gallon garbage can, removed her identification and took other items from the scene.
Pritchett also testified he talked to a friend about burning Kennedy’s body, but said he opted not to because he did not believe the fire would get hot enough.
Before he sentenced Pritchett, Grimes also heard from Kennedy family friend Cherlyn Wolfe.
Reading from a prepared statement, Wolfe said she used Kennedy as a baby sitter for her six children, but changes in Kennedy forced her to find someone new. The changes occurred when Kennedy started dating Pritchett.
“It broke my heart. She was no longer the same vibrant, fun girl she was before she met up with Avery,” Wolfe said, crying.
Wolfe said she struggles with guilt and questions, wondering if she could have done more to help Kennedy.
As the silent victim, Wolfe said she was forced to imagine what Kennedy would say to her grieving family and to the man who killed her.
“I think she would tell Avery he is a coward,” Wolfe said. “You took what you could not control, and you snuffed the life out of it.”
Although she called Pritchett “a pathetic excuse for a man,” Wolfe said she would not waste energy hating him. She said she would use that energy to celebrate Kennedy’s life daily.
“By random acts of kindness, I will remember her, so her death was not in vain,” Wolfe said.
Meanwhile, Toni Kennedy said she and her husband and two daughters have struggled to cope.
Her youngest, a 5-year-old, spent last year refusing to go to school because she was afraid she would come home to find her parents dead, Kennedy said.
“As Vick’s mom and a parent, I hope you rot in hell,” Kennedy said.