Connolly's killer gets 40 years to serve

October 23, 2012

WOONSOCKET — Vicki Connolly finally got justice Tuesday for her brutal murder at the hands of a Burrillville man in September 2007.
Michael A. Ducharme, 45, stood before Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel Tuesday afternoon and admitted to killing Connolly in the state Black Hut Management area of Burrillville shortly after she went missing in Woonsocket on Sept. 5, 2007.
After explaining in detail what Ducharme was accepting with his plea of guilt worked out between his attorneys, Elaine Brunetti and Collin Geiselman, and Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office, a sentence of 60 years with 40 to be served in prison, Vogel told Ducharme she accepted his request to change an earlier plea of innocence to guilty.
“How do you plea?” she asked. “Guilty, your honor,” Ducharme said while standing before her in an open collar, light blue dress shirt, a white T-shirt underneath, dark slacks and the sheriff’s department shackles and chains still binding his hands and feet.

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