Richard Machovec is a season ticket-holder who took his seat Sunday at the Ravens? opening game in the upper deck, corner end zone. Just like old times, he scanned the crowd at the club level of M&T Bank Stadium where his sister Alice used to sit, all decked out in purple, screaming and hollering.
Her seats were empty.
Alice Tremper was stabbed to death at her Baldwin home on Aug. 30, 2005, as her 8-year-old daughter looked on.
Her ex-boyfriend, John Coles, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to first-degree murder in the case after reaching an agreement with the state.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Machovec thought he was having a nightmare the day his father called to say Tremper, 35, was dead. Once police cleared the crime scene and reopened her home, Machovec walked through to gather belongings and see what was left of the attack.
“It?s weird. I guess I thought I owed it to her to see what she went through,” he said. “She started upstairs and ended up outside. She just wanted to live, to get her little girl out of there.”
The evidence against Coles, 31, was overwhelming, defense attorney Warren Brown said.
Tremper?s daughter was prepared to testify against him, telling a jury that Coles took after her mother with a “long metal object,” according to Baltimore County court records.
“He was just out of control,” Brown said, adding that the sentence was the best Coles could have hoped for at trial. “He can?t explain it I can?t explain it.”
Coles was found lying on a bed in the home, also suffering from stab wounds, authorities said, but it is not clear how he was hurt.
Tremper owned several show horses and rode competitively around the country, Machovec said. She loved the Ravens so much, he said, that it?s not surprising they?re expected to do well this season.
“Because she?s up there yelling at them,” he said. “That?s why.”
