Racine---Michael Enz is still haunted by the two year-old hatchet-slaying of an employee whom he and his wife had tried to protect from an abusive husband.
And who could blame him.
The attack happened on the Enz' front porch on a quiet street in Mt. Pleasant, while Enz and his wife were inside, unaware.
After having completed an errand, Roxana Abrudan was in the process returning to the Enz residence where she'd been given refuge weeks earlier by the sympathetic Enz family. It was one of the few times that Abrudan had gone off on her own without being accompanied by one of the Enz's or another friend.
The couple heard what sounded like Abrudan's truck pull up the drive. They heard the garage door open and had expected to see Roxana walk through the door. But what followed was silence. By the time Michael made it outside to check on her welfare, Abrudan was gone--kidnapped by her hatchet-wielding husband. Left behind in the front yard were body parts and a bloody hatchet.
"I could bring soldiers home from combat but I couldn't save a person on my front porch," said a distraught Enz, an Army vet who had served in Afghanistan. Enz spoke at the sentencing hearing Wednesday for Abrudan's husband, Chistian Loga-Negru.
Ironically, Loga-Negru, a Romanian, had served in the U-S military as well. That's how he earned his U-S citizenship.
At the sentencing, Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz set release eligibility at 30 years. That means that the 40 year-old Loga-Negru will be eligible to apply for release around the time he turns 70.
The prosecution--and Enz--had asked the judge to forego setting a date, guaranteeing that Loga-Negru would have no chance of freedom, ever.
An obviously pained Gasiorkiewicz said he just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. "I can not give up on humanity," the judge said. "I can not deprive an individual of hope."
During his remarks, Gasiorkiewicz noted that about a-third of the women killed in the U-S each year die at the hands of an intimate partner.
Assistant District Attorney Trish Hanson described the defendant as a classic domestic violence offender, despite a background in business and law--he had two law degrees, one secured in Romania and the other in this country.
Abrudan had a hard time leaving Loga-Negru because she loved him, according to Enz, and didn't want to give up on her dream of earning U-S citizenship and a college degree. "She said to me that she'd rather die or get beat up then give up her dream," Enz told the judge.
Both Gasiorkiewicz and Hanson were at a loss Wednesday to identify something that could've been done differently that could've led to a different outcome.
With the help of the Enz', Abrudan had obtained a temporary restraining order.
-0-