![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Arizona man who buried his wife alive in a hand-dug grave near their home has been jailed for life.<\/p>\n
Seven years after the killing, David Pagniano pleaded guilty to murdering his wife before his trial was due to start and allowed a judge to determine his sentence without a plea agreement.<\/p>\n
The 62-year-old was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole, meaning he will die in prison.<\/p>\n
He was also sentenced on 9 May to 16-and-a-half years for kidnapping, forgery and fraud, according to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n
“My office pursued the death penalty in this case because of the horrific circumstances surrounding the abduction and murder of a young mother,” County Attorney Dennis McGrane said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Authorities said 39-year-old Sandra Pagniano vanished while she was in the process of divorcing her husband in May 2017.<\/p>\n
They said the pair were separated but still living in the same home with their two young daughters.<\/p>\n
Ms Pagniano’s body was found bound and gagged in packing tape inside a grave in a rural area north of Prescott.<\/p>\n
The county medical examiner’s office confirmed she had been buried alive.<\/p>\n
Officials said evidence showed she vigorously struggled while she was in the grave and may have been conscious for up to five minutes.<\/p>\n
In addition, mobile phone evidence showed Pagniano was in the gravesite area days before his wife went missing and the night of the kidnapping.<\/p>\n
Detectives recovered two notes that were filed in the divorce case following Mrs Pagniano’s disappearance, purportedly written by her.<\/p>\n
The notes said she was leaving her husband and giving him her vehicles, house and custody of their children.<\/p>\n
But authorities said a forensic examination of the notes revealed they were written by Pagniano.<\/p>\n
A grand jury indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder after his wife’s body was discovered in a remote area 10 miles (16km) northwest of the family home near Prescott in north-central Arizona.<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"