ALFRED — Kelly Gorham was a beautiful, conscientious young woman who was caring and giving, her mother said, and her 2007 strangulation murder by the man who was once her fiancé has devastated her family.
“The world was a much better place with her in it,” said Pauline Gorham. “We all feel her absence. (Her death leaves) a huge, empty, endless hole.”
Tuesday, Jason Twardus, 30, of Rochester, N.H., was sentenced to 38 years in prison for Kelly Gorham’s murder, by York County Superior Court Justice G. Arthur Brennan.
Twardus’ expression was deadpan throughout most of the hour-long session at York County Superior Court. He lifted his hand once to wipe a tear when a family member spoke on his behalf. Underneath the table, unseen by most, a shoe was in almost constant motion. He declined to address the court.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes had asked for a 45 year sentence; Darrick Banda, who represented Twardus along with Daniel Lilley, recommended 30 years in prison.
Members of the Gorham family asked Brennan to consider sentencing Twardus to a lifetime in prison.
Twardus’ family asked for leniency.
Twardus was convicted in October of murdering Gorham, who lived in an Alfred apartment, and then transporting her body 180 miles north to Stewartstown, N.H., where he buried her on land owned by his father, Brian Twardus. Gorham, a nursing student, was last seen on the evening of Aug. 7, 2007 and was reported missing the following day when she failed to show up for a work shift at Maine Medical Center.
Her whereabouts were unknown for three weeks, until Sept. 2, 2007, when her remains were found in a shallow grave on the Twardus land in Stewartstown.
Twardus was arrested and charged with her murder in January 2009. During his trial, he denied killing her, claimed he was fishing at Rye Beach alone the night she died and that he had spent the following day at home. He has maintained that someone else is responsible for her death.
Lilley had suggested that Gorham’s landlord, John Durfee, could have committed the crime and had requested a new trial, which was denied last month. Following the sentencing Tuesday, he said he would launch an appeal.
A surveillance video from a convenience store Aug. 8, 2007 put Twardus within seven miles of where Gorham’s body was later found, Stokes noted during the trial. He said Twardus had telephoned Gorham 32 times between June 21 and Aug. 6, 2007, even though they were no longer a couple, but after Aug. 6, only made one phone call, on Aug. 9 that year, and left a message.
Stokes Tuesday said Gorham at some point must have realized she was about to die. He said Twardus had not expressed remorse for killing Gorham and in a pre-sentence report called her a victim of domestic violence, “literally at the hands of her former fiancé.”
Banda pointed out Twardus has no previous criminal record and said there was no history of domestic violence. He said his client did not stalk Gorham in the legal sense.
Prior to sentencing, members of both families addressed the judge.
“This man is no longer a man,” said Katie Gorham, Kelly’s youngest sister. “He’s a monster and should be treated as such.”
“Single-handedly, Jason, a man whom our family loved, strangled the life out of my sister, leaving this world one less productive person,” said another sister, Kim Gooding. “My (children) will only know Kelly as an angel looking over them.”
Her mother, Pauline, said the ensuing years since her daughter was murdered have been difficult. She’s experienced tears, depression, health problems and a feeling of being lost and alone.
“At times, I felt I would absolutely lose my mind,” she said.
Pauline Gorham recalled Kelly making daily visits to a friend who had cancer, her love for animals, and of Kelly as an eighth grade student, tutoring a classmate.
She said she had always been a forgiving person.
“This time, forgiveness does not come ”¦ please show him no mercy,” she said as she asked the judge to impose a life sentence.
Brian Twardus described his son as someone involved in his church in his youth, a talented artist who didn’t like to be in the limelight. He said Jason took part in fundraising charities, like walking and running, and always put others first. He described an occasion when Twardus learned Kelly had run out of oil in her apartment and dipped into his savings to give her $300.
“This is the Jason I know and love. I know deep down in my heart he did not do this,” said Brian Twardus.
“We all love Jason ”¦ he’s not a violent person, we ask you to know who he is ”¦ we want him home with us,” sobbed his mother, Rosemarie Chagnon.
Brennan said Twardus found it impossible to let go of his relationship with Gorham. He noted the manner of her death involved conscious pain and suffering.
“It is a hard way to die,” said Brennan. “The decision to take her body to New Hampshire and bury it would be every parent’s nightmare ”¦ as time goes on, intellectually I suspect the family realizes the outcome won’t be good, but they cling to the hope ”¦”
He said Twardus was, by all accounts, a good son, brother and friend with a good work history and no prior criminal history and agreed with Stokes’ assertion that both families are victims in this case.
Twardus’ behavior “does not suggest an intrinsically evil person, but on this occasion he committed a very, very evil act,” Brennan concluded.
Following the hearing, Stokes described the sentence as “very fair.” He said the factors that would indicate a life sentence were not present.
Pauline Gorham said she was happy with the outcome and expressed relief that the seemingly endless trips to the courthouse are over.
“The state (prosecutors) and investigators did their very best,” she said.
The family visits Kelly’s grave often and she’s planted a perennial garden there, Pauline Gorham said.
“It’s a way of feeling we’re still doing something for Kelly,” she said.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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