“I chose to drink.
“I chose to end the life of my friend.
“I left.”
“I lied.”
This testimony by Melissa Burch Harton encapsulated the shocking ordeal that ended Monday with Harton receiving the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Howard County Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman sentenced Harton, 26, after about five hours of testimony from family and friends of Harton and her victim.
“The defendant missed, prevented, precluded opportunities to get help to the victim,” Gelfman said. “She was deceitful and cunning. Everything was done to protect her tracks.”
Harton, of Columbia, pleaded guilty to strangling her friend and fellow Loyola College doctoral candidate, Natasha Bacchus Magee, in a drunken fight March 9, 2005.
“It?s one of the saddest cases I?ve ever been involved in,” said Harton?s lawyer, Michael E. Kaminkow, who said he would petition for a review of the sentence, which must occur within 90 days.
“She should be held accountable for her actions,” said Senior Assistant State?s Attorney Mary Murphy, who prosecuted the case.
“You can?t take someone?s life in your hands and extinguish it and walk away without being held responsible.”
Friends and members of both families pleaded with the judge in emotional testimonies at the hearing.
“Your Honor, I have lost the only woman I have ever loved,” said the victim?s husband, John Magee, who said he suffers from uncontrollable shaking, nightmares, insomnia, vomiting and graying hair because of his wife?s death.
“I find it hard to describe how empty I have become.”
The 342 days Harton served were credited toward her sentence. She will be eligible for parole in about 1 1/2 years.
Harton will be held in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup.
A fatal night out
Melissa Burch Harton, of Columbia, and Natasha Bacchus Magee, of Stewartstown, Pa., were both doctoral candidates in psychology at Loyola College.
They went out for dinner and drinks on the evening of March 8, 2005.
Early March 9, a witness saw Harton on top of an injured Magee. Harton said she did not know Magee and sent the witness away for help.
By the time the police arrived, Harton had driven Magee to a pool and dumped her body in a gutter. She gave six versions of what happened, and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Feb. 10.
? Source: Howard County court documents and judge?s statement
