Co-worker gets 44 years in Yale killing

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The animal technician who choked a Yale student to death days before what should have been her Long Island wedding wept through an apology Friday before a judge sentenced him to 44 years in prison.

The sentencing followed a March guilty plea by the technician, Raymond J. Clark III, to murder and attempted sexual assault in the 2009 killing of Annie Le, 24, of Placerville, Calif. Clark will not be eligible for parole.

Le's wedding to Huntington native Jonathan Widawsky was canceled soon after she went missing. On what should have been her wedding day, Sept. 13, 2009, authorities found Le's body stuffed in a wall behind a toilet in the lab building where she did mouse experiments.

"There are no excuses for what I have done. Annie was and will always be a wonderful person -- by far a better person than I will ever be in my life," said Clark, now 26. "I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry I ruined lives, and I'm sorry for taking Annie Le's life."

Widawsky attended the sentencing but did not speak.

Le's relatives told the court that Le's slaying tore a hole in their souls, turning what should have been a joyous wedding at the North Ritz Club in Syosset into the sorrow of planning her funeral.

"I will never see her walking down the aisle. I will never hold my grandchildren," Le's mother, Vivian Le, said in court.

"Her future is gone. Her life is gone," she said as Clark stared at her and cried. "You took away her life. You took away her future. I will never hug Annie again."

In a statement read to the court by another relative, Le's cousin Ryan Nguyen recalled flying home to California after the murder, knowing that Le's body was being flown home the same day.

"We were supposed to fly back home exhausted from partying at the wedding the night before," he said. "My brother, Chris, was supposed to walk with my sister. My other brother, Dan, and I were to hold the Jewish wedding canopy, the chuppah, representing a new beginning."

In sentencing Clark, Judge Roland D. Fasano of Superior Court in New Haven said the plea deal guaranteed imprisonment for Clark and spared the Le family from a trial at which highly personal details would be aired.

Though most of Le's family appeared to support the sentence, one relative who raised Le said in a statement that Clark should be executed -- or at least face life imprisonment.

"I feel as though Annie's life has been and will further be denigrated and defiled if this court renders a decision which calls for anything less than the very life of the man who raped, brutalized and murdered her," said the statement by Tuyet Bui, Le's aunt. Another family member read the statement.

Clark pleaded guilty in March to the attempted sexual assault charge under a Connecticut doctrine in which a defendant agrees that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him, but the defendant does not admit committing the crime. Clark's semen was found on Le's clothing, and her underwear had been disarranged.

The case against Clark overwhelmingly favored his guilt. Evidence included a green-ink pen he used to sign in to work the day of the slaying, later found under Le's body with DNA; access-card swipes recorded him continually entering and exiting the room where she was found dead; his attempts to generate an alibi for his whereabouts; his being caught wiping down the crime scene; and bloody clothing with genetic material belonging to him and Le.

Authorities have never provided a clear motive for the slaying. Although Clark on Friday took responsibility for the murder, he did not explain why he killed Le.