A Massachusetts man was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on Monday for viciously murdering a couple inside their Peabody home in 2017.
A Salem Superior Court jury found 42-year-old Wes Doughty guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, armed carjacking, kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and attempted arson in the deaths of 37-year-old Mark Greenlaw and 40-year-old Jennifer O’Connor, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors say the killing stemmed from a web of relationships and conflicts between the people living at the home on Farm Avenue, including Doughty’s fear of Greenlaw interfering with his drug business.
Greenlaw was found shot to death, while O’Connor was fatally stabbed.
In her sentencing argument, Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall requested consecutive life sentences stating, “While it is largely symbolic, it speaks to the separate and distinct acts. Mark and Jennifer were deeply loved and deserved a chance to win their war against addiction.”
Doughty’s attorney said his client killed Greenlaw and O’Conner to protect a “father figure,” who ran the house.
“The facts of this case were extremely disturbing and is evidence of the destruction that drug abuse and trafficking can wreak of people’s lives,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said. “I am pleased that Judge Feeley adopted the Commonwealth’s recommendation to impose the mandatory life without parole sentences consecutively rather than concurrently.
Police say the bodies of Greenlaw and O’Connor were found wrapped up in carpeting.
Doughty was arrested in South Carolina several days after the murder.
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