Sanders sentenced to 25 years in prison

By: Jack Willems and Pamela Acosta

Posted: 10/18/06

Brandon Sanders was convicted of first-degree murder Monday night and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Sanders was on trial for the murder of UA student April Love.

Before the sentencing, the prosecution stressed the loss of Love to her family, while the defense emphasized that Sanders was a first time offender with no history of violent behavior.

Prosecutor Mieka Hatcher displayed pictures of Love as a newborn, a Homecoming queen, a musician at her local church, an intern in Washington and a beauty pageant winner.

"She was special that day," said Magigor Love, April Love's mother, while looking at a picture of April Love as a newborn, "and she was special everyday."

Ira Love, April Love's father, said losing April was "a parent's worse nightmare."

He described April as someone always looking to help people. He recounted one instance when April wanted the Love household to host refugees from Hurricane Katrina. After he agreed to host two people, he later found out that April had volunteered the household to host five people.

"Not only were we as a family robbed, but society as a whole was robbed of this wonderful person," Ira Love said.

Defense attorney Q. Byrum Hurst passed around pictures of Sanders as a child while questioning his family. Sanders' family described him as a good kid who had never shown any violent tendencies.

Juanita Sledge, Sanders' mother, told the jury her son never got in trouble at school.

Sanders ran track, played football, graduated and went to college, Sledge said. He would have joined the Air Force were it not for his sickle cell anemia, she said.

Sanders' first cousin, Letito Williams, testified that Sanders "was like a little brother" to him.

"Do what you think is right, but give him a chance," Williams said. "But to throw away the key and dispose of him forever, please don't do that."

Kevin Sanders, Brandon Sanders' father, asked the jury to show his son leniency and give him a second chance.

The important thing for the jury to keep in mind was what Brandon Sanders meant to do, Hatcher said.

"His purpose was to end April Love's life," she said. "It can be inferred in an instant when you look at the manner of her death," Hatcher said.

In the prosecution's closing arguments, Hatcher asked the jury to give the defendant a life sentence.

"He is not entitled to one ounce more of mercy than he showed April on September 11," Hatcher said. "Regardless of what your sentence is, his mother can still talk to him. April Love's parents can only talk to a gravestone."

Hurst thinks the defense lost the case because their sexual asphyxiation defense was "an extremely unusual defense to the jury."

"It is not common as a sexual practice," Hurst said, "and it runs the risk of repulsing the jury."

Hatcher said the jury rejected the defense's story because it did not match with the testimony of the other witnesses.

Hurst said losing the case was very difficult because Sanders "was so honest."

"His hesitation to go to the police immediately was based on his belief that no one would believe him," Hurst said, "and he was right."

Hurst thinks the jury convicted Sanders because Hatcher tried to appeal to their emotions, he said.

Hurst will appeal the convictions and said that he has "no doubt that this case will be retried."

"They didn't have substantial evidence against the defendant, but they did have substantial evidence that the victim was a good person," Hurst said. "It is a good strategy to win the case, but it is not good for justice."

Friends of Love had mixed emotions about the trial.

Bertha Gutierrez, a UA senior, said she was happy to hear the verdict, but didn't think the sentence was sufficient.

"I just don't think that's enough," Gutierrez said. "I wanted him to stay there forever."

He was only sentenced to 25 years because he didn't have a previous record, she said. Gutierrez felt somewhat relieved, but nothing will bring Love back, she said.

"Whatever the outcome is, she's not here and that's never going to be OK," she said. "But at the same time, it's good that he's paying for it."

Love left friends knowing that she was committed to making a difference, Gutierrez said.

"She set an example of what we could do in our lives," Gutierrez said. "I want her life story to continue to be talked about.

"People will not have a chance to meet her and get changed by her," she said.

Gutierrez, who knew Love since their freshman year, attended the trial Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Hillary Klinger, a junior, created a Facebook group in memory of Love.

"I was not lucky enough to have gotten to know April on as intimate of a level as I would have hoped," Klinger said. "We would run into each other on campus and she would always give me that big smile of hers and say hello. I remember the last day I saw her and she was walking out of Old Main with a few of her classmates.

"She was in that same great mood she always seemed to be in," Klinger said.

Klinger felt a sense of relief when she heard that the jury found Sanders guilty of murder, she said.

"You can't help but to have that sense of doubt in the back of your mind that the juries may have believed his story. Twenty-five years doesn't seem long enough," Klinger said.

"A life sentence doesn't seem like it would be long enough. I cannot even imagine the emotions that April's family members are going through right now, but I know they would want nothing more than to have April back," Klinger said. "No sentence will bring her back."

Todd Shields, chairman of the political science department, was Love's adviser and a witness in the trial.

Given everything that Shields heard in the trial, he reached the same conclusion the jury did and said the facts were hard to escape.

Shields had mixed feelings about Sanders' sentence.

"It's always really hard when someone so young is going to prison, but at the same time, April is not coming back and [Sanders] still has a second chance," Shields said.

Shields is glad that the trial is over, even though there is an appeal coming, he said.

This time of the year is hard for Shields because it was the time when he and Love would sit down to decide what her schedule of classes would be and discuss what was going on in her life, he said.

"I look at my advising sheet and I wish I could see April's name so I could talk to her," Shields said. "She had a smile for everybody."