As Brenda and Connie recovered from their injuries, they had a hard time coping and adjusting to the new circumstances of their lives. Connie especially was having a miserable time of it. This was the second untimely death of a true love and she was feeling that she was cursed. Although her first love, Travis Williamson was of such a short duration, having died virtually within minutes after their only date, so it could not be said it was a grand love. Still there was no concrete evidence that it might not have developed into one.
On the other hand there is no denying that the death of Bruce Fielding was devastating to her. He was the sun and moon to her existence. The fact that they were fucking within almost a minute of their initial meeting when he did not even know her name, to her mind was solid evidence of a unique relationship between them. She felt she was married to him and her grief could not be any more poignant if she had been officially married. The senselessness of Bruce's death weighed on her making it absolutely difficult if not almost impossible for her to move on.
It turned out that Connie's catharsis for her grief occurred when she appeared in court at Spencer's trial. About a month after Connie's recovery the DA's office contacted her for an interview. After reviewing
her recollection of the event, the prosecutor suggested that her testimony at trial should not be contentious. The remaining evidence was damning enough that Spencer would surely be convicted even without her evidence. The only real issue would be punishment. Michigan does not have the death penalty so it boiled down to whether he would be sentenced to life without any possibility of parole or a sentence with possibility of eventual parole.
Since that is the only real issue in his prosecution, the defense lawyer for Spencer would tend not to cross examine Connie too harshly. In fact the lawyer might not cross examine her at all, for fear of adducing extra sympathy for her, and thereby dooming Spencer to the harsher sentence.
In that light the prosecutor suggested that after conviction if Connie would appear to give a victim's impact statement. Depending on what she said, it might ensure the ultimate penalty would be imposed on Spencer. The prosecutor advised that she was not obliged to give an impact statement on sentencing so that it was up to her.
At first Connie was inclined not to have anything to do with Spencer's trial except what she had to do. She could not care less what would happen to Spencer as nothing would bring back Bruce. However as the trial date loomed closer the angrier she became that she had been deprived of the love of her life by this maggot known as Spencer Thorneburg.
Connie's appearance at trial was not dramatic. Her testimony was straight forward, and in essence confirmed that Spencer did kill Bruce and grievously wounded her. Those were facts that were also provable by other evidence so her testimony was not open to debate. As the prosecutor had predicted, Spencer's lawyer did a very perfunctory cross examination so Connie did not experience an anguished ordeal.
About a month after his conviction sometime during the January of her sophomore year at MSU, Spencer's sentencing hearing was scheduled. By this time her anger had reached the apex of her misery and she knew she had to say something. So she appeared at the sentencing to give a victim's impact statement, and this is what she said:
"I met you Spencer Thorneburg at the Harrison Roadhouse the September before last on the occasion when Michigan State played Western Michigan. As a result of that encounter I consented to going with you to your residence and we had sex. For me that was an unfortunate experience which I regretted to have participated in. Objectively any rational male would have easily concluded that this was just a one night stand not a relationship as of yet.
"I declined to provide my telephone number and although you forced your telephone number on me, I did not call you. Although I was at your residence I did not seek you out. As you provided lots of information about yourself that night, it is thus abundantly clear that had I wanted to contact you I could have easily done so. On the other hand I did not provide any information about myself so you could not so easily contact me. Again on an objective basis it was clear I was not encouraging the beginning of a relationship.
"So you can imagine my surprise when you accosted me last year about this time some four months after our only encounter. You demanded we resume our relationship despite the fact that I pointed out the obvious fact that we had not had a relationship. By every objective standard one date even where sex is involved does not constitute a relationship. To further dissuade you I advised I was officially engaged and displayed my engagement ring. So every rational person would have to conclude that between you and me, there was nothing there, there.
"However you intruded in my life most grievously last May. You entered my fiancé's apartment as we were engaged in sex, shouting incomprehensibly words I will never forget: "You fucking whore! You don't deserve to live..." Those words cannot be justified even by the delusional.
"Then you shot my fiancé, Bruce Fielding dead, a man who did no harm to you. You then shot me intending to kill me, but by the grace of God I survived. On many occasions during these past horrible eight months I harbored the morbid wish that you would have succeeded in killing me. At least I would have been spared the extreme anguish and overpowering grief I have since endured.
