In 2017, a man from Prescott, Arizona, admitted to killing his wife by burying her alive and was given a life term without the chance of parole.
As a result of the murder of his 39-year-old wife Sandra Pagniano and her burial alive in a grave that was dug by hand near their home, 62-year-old David Michael Pagniano was given a jail sentence that will last his whole life.
“My office pursued the death penalty in this case because of the horrific circumstances surrounding the abduction and murder of a young mother,” he said.
Sandra Pagniano went missing in May 2017 while she was getting a divorce from her husband.
They lived with their two young girls in the same house while they were apart.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office started looking into Sandra Pagniano’s strange absence, which led to a huge search for her.
People found Sandra Pagniano’s body in a hand-dug hole in the woods near Prescott. It was bound and gagged with packing tape.
The medical officer said that she was buried alive.
“The evidence revealed she vigorously struggled while she was in the grave and was likely conscious for up to five minutes after being buried,” said McGrane.
As the investigation went on, detectives found two notes that Sandra Pagniano had supposedly written and filed in the divorce case after she had disappeared.
In the notes, Sandra Pagniano said she was leaving David Pagniano and giving him the cars, the house, and custody of their kids.
When forensic experts looked at the letters, they finally found that Sandra Pagniano had written them.
Aside from the physical proof, cellphone records showed that David Pagniano was near the grave where his wife was found both the night she went missing and just days before she died.
McGrane said Pagniano pleaded guilty to murder the night before his hearing was set to start. This meant that the judge would decide how to punish him.
David Pagniano got life in jail for murder and an extra 16 and a half years for kidnapping, forgery, and fraud.
“I hope the life sentence brings some closure to the victim’s family,” he said. “I want to be clear that my office will vigorously prosecute anyone who commits a violent crime in Yavapai County, and we will continue to pursue the death penalty in appropriate cases.”
