Convicted Triple Murderer Wants Sentence Reduced

Daniel LaPlante, convicted 30 years ago of murdering a pregnant Massachusetts mother and her two children, is now hoping for a new sentence.

"I do not have the words to fully express my profound sorrow," LaPlante told a judge on Wednesday. "But I am truly sorry for the harm that I have caused."

LaPlante was 17 when he shot and killed Priscilla Gustafson in her Townsend home in 1987. He drowned her two young children, as well.

Gustafson's two sisters and her brother pleaded with the judge not to grant LaPlante parole.

"That day that fractured all of our lives," said Gustafson's sister, Christine Morgan.

"How unfair and faith-shaking this was," said her other sister, Elizabeth Morgan Williams. "The loving goodness embodied in all three of them taken by such evil."

LaPlante was sentenced to three life terms in prison, but the courts in recent years have ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole, and so now, he has a chance for a new sentence.

His attorneys say he has been a model prisoner, was abused as a child, and had learning disabilities, as well.

"I do not believe Daniel LaPlante is repentant," said Priscilla's brother, Rev. William Morgan Jr. "I believe he will always be a danger to society and to our children."

Carole Gustafson, who later married Priscilla's husband, Andy, says the nightmare of losing his first wife and their kids haunted him the rest of his life. He died of cancer three years ago.

The judge could make a decision on a new sentence on Thursday.

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