A diagnosed sexual sadist and convicted rapist recently connected to the cold-case murders of two women in Washington state in the 1980s was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison on Wednesday, May 13.
Mitchell Gaff, who was caught after four decades because of DNA taken from chewing gum during an undercover police operation, showed little emotion during the court hearing packed with sobbing survivors and victim family members who got to confront him for the first time. Gaff, 68, pleaded guilty last month to murdering 21-year-old Susan Vesey in 1980 and 42-year-old Judy Weaver in 1984.
Both women were mothers of two who were brutally raped and murdered during prolonged attacks in their homes, police say. Vesey's children − just 3 and 20 months old at the time − were home at the time.
"I was in the same room when the defendant killed my mother ... I was found swaddled on her bed. This is the beginning of my life," Vesey's son, Joshua Vesey, said in a statement read during the sentencing hearing. "What the defendant took from me and my sister was not just a life − it was a mother's unconditional love, the kind of love that shapes who you become before you can understand it."
Before Gaff was sentenced, Craig Matheson emphasized to the judge "the predatory randomness" of Gaff's crimes.
