Christopher Plaskon: Prom Day Slayer Sentenced, Mother Of Victim Recounts Tragedy
Connecticut teen Christopher Plaskon was sentenced on Monday for the murder of his classmate in what became known as the Prom Day Slaying.
Plaskon, 19, was sentenced to 25 years for his heinous crime that took place in the hallways of his school just hours before the 2014 junior prom. Plaskon pleaded no contest in March to the charges that he killed 16-year-old Maren Sanchez, a female classmate, the junior class president, and a National Honor Society student at Milford’s Jonathan Law High School in April of 2014.
According to police, Plaskon brutally attacked Sanchez in the hallway on the Friday morning of their junior prom. He fatally stabbed her in the neck and torso. Police believe Plaskon’s murder of Sanchez was motivated by Sanchez declining his invitation to the annual formal dance being held at their school.
According to the police report, a bloody knife was found near the crime scene. One witness tried to pull Plaskon off of Maren Sanchez, and another witness saw Plaskon discard a bloody knife onto a hallway floor in the school. Plaskon was taken into custody while still covered in blood, and, according to court documents, chillingly admitted his guilt to an officer.
“I did it. Just arrest me.”
Connecticut Superior Court Judge John Ronan sentenced him in a Monday morning hearing, a court official confirmed.
“I stared in disbelief and shook my head and repeated over and over and over again, ‘No, this only happens in the movies.’ As the doctors and nurses continued to shake their heads telling me she did not make it, I could not understand what they were saying to me. When I was brought to finally see her, she laid like a lifeless angel, my baby lying there with a drip of dried blood on her mouth.”
Maren’s mother made her first public comments about her daughter’s tragic murder at Jonathan Law High School just before Plaskon was sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of a plea deal. She spoke movingly of seeing her 16-year-old daughter try on her prom dress.
“Just five days before she died, Maren tried on her prom gown for our family and friends. In my wildest nightmares, I could not envision that the next time she would wear her beautiful dress would be at her wake.”
Sanchez’s parents filed a lawsuit, accusing the school system of negligence, saying Sanchez told a guidance counselor that Plaskon was troubled and capable of hurting others. Furthermore, a friend of Plaskon’s told police that Plaskon thought about hurting Sanchez because he wanted to be “more than friends” with Sanchez. The friend said Plaskon said he wouldn’t mind if Sanchez “was dead or hit by a bus.”
Court documents, released by Plaskon’s lawyer, Richard Meehan, show that it was believed Plaskon had a “mental disease or defect and/or extreme emotional disturbance.” Not much more beyond that was elaborated in the court documents, but Meehan said in court that Plaskon was taking anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications.
The lawsuit, filed by Donna Cimarelli as the administrator of her daughter’s estate, states that Maren Sanchez told officials in the high school guidance department that Plaskon was “emotionally disturbed” before Plaskon stabbed her to death in the school hallway. It alleges that the school did not do enough to keep Sanchez safe, and accuses Plaskon’s parents of failing to get their son adequate health.
“In the days leading up to the morning of April 25 2014, Christopher Plaskon articulated express intent to harm” Sanchez, says the lawsuit.
Named in the lawsuit, which seeks damages in excess of $15,000, are the city of Milford, the board of education, as well as Plaskon himself and his parents, David and Kathleen Plaskon.
School officials have declined to comment on any potential pending lawsuit.
[Photo by Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File]
