Emergency personnel found Lauret Savoy lying in a pool of blood with broken bones and puncture wounds.
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A Massachusetts art teacher in love who for hours tortured her colleague whom she adored with a fire poker has been sentenced to between 10 and 12 years in prison.
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Rie Hachiyanagi, 50, pleaded guilty last week to nine charges related to the shocking December 24, 2019 attack on Lauret Savoy.
Both women were professors at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
Two portraits of Hachiyanagi emerged during the procedures: gracious, devoted friend, talented artist, and dedicated teacher. The other was that he was a jealous person with anger issues.
On Christmas Eve, Hachiyanagi went to Savoy’s house claiming she was distraught after a recent breakup. Savoy let her in, but when she turned her back on him, Hachiyanagi attacked her.
What followed was a four-hour torture session with Hachiyanagi telling the terrified victim that “he had loved her for years.” The couple met in 2005 and Savoy said they were just friends.
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Savoy, her attacker said, should have known Hachiyanagi’s feelings. He allegedly threatened to blind, disfigure and kill Savoy, who played along in the hopes of getting help.
Eventually, Hachiyanagi relented and called 911.
“I have struggled to find a word that could contain both the attack and my experience in its meaning,” Savoy said, according to WWLP.
“The closest I found is this: ‘Severe or unbearable pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the imposition of such ‘. This is a definition of torture. “
She added: “For four hours I experienced literal torture of body and mind, not knowing if I would survive the next minute, but I needed to find some way to save my life. The emotional, physical, financial and professional impacts of this crime have been enormous and continue ”.
The court heard that emergency personnel found Savoy lying in a pool of blood with broken bones and puncture wounds. Hachiyanagi told the police at the scene that she came to save her friend.
Judge Francis Flannery took five days to consider sentencing recommendations from the prosecution and the defense. He told the court that he was tempted to exceed the prosecution’s sentencing recommendation.
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