The sentencing hearing for couple who pleaded guilty in the brutal murder of a Sarnia teacher got underway Wednesday in St. Thomas.
The court heard an agreed statement of facts and then victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
The accused, Tanya Bogdanovich, 34, appeared in the courtroom in handcuffs, her hair long and greying.
The co-accused, Michael MacGregor, 22, was held in a separate prisoners box with short hair and wearing a dark suit.
In December, MacGregor and Bogdanovich pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Noelle Paquette.
Paquette was found dead a day after disappearing on her way home from a New Year's Eve party in Sarnia three years ago.
In an agreed statement of fact, the court heard the couple, "Had been planning the abduction, rape and murder of a random victim on New Year's Eve."
"She (Noelle Paquette) was raped, brutally murdered in a frenzied knife attack, she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Michael Carnegie, Crown Attorney.
“They planned to subject their rape victims to the most degrading acts," added Carnegie
The two spotted Paquette walking by herself after leaving the party, followed her, picked her up in a car and drove her to a secluded woodlot west of Petrolia.
The court heard that she was then sexually assaulted at knifepoint, then stabbed.
The pleas were entered during pre-trial motions in the case.
