MAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON IN STUDENT'S DEATH

A Winooski man was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years to life in prison
for the random beating death of a Japanese graduate student six years ago.

Jacob Sexton, 24, apologized to the family of 37-year-old Atsuko
Ikeda, a St. Michael's College student, who was killed when she road
her bicycle past his home.

Sexton had said he had been on a drug binge when he made the decision
to kill the next person he saw.

Ikeda's sister traveled from Japan to attend the sentencing, WCAX-TV reported.

"I believe that with time, the support of fiends and Atsuko's spirit
have helped us live through this ordeal," Satcheko Ikeda told the judge.

"So the next wish is that nobody else will ever have to go through
this terrible experience."

Sexton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal in July.

The case had been delayed by an appeal before the Vermont Supreme
Court and questions about Sexton's mental health.

The defense had long said Sexton's use of LSD and cocaine in the
weeks before the crime worsened his mental illness.

But on June 9 the Supreme Court ruled that Sexton could not claim he
was insane because of his use of drugs.

The court allowed Sexton to argue that his mental capacity was
diminished when he committed the crime.