Heather M. Catterall at her sentencing Wednesday.

The Providence Journal Kathy Borchers

NEWPORT — Heather M. Catterall’s back was to the crowd, so they didn’t see any tears. But as she read the handwritten mea culpa, anyone within earshot could hear that her words were choked with emotion.

“I’m sorry, and I wish I could change it all,” she said in Newport County Superior Court, her high-pitched voice at times shaking so much that her words were inaudible. “I deserve whatever the court imposes upon me … My actions were inexcusable, and nothing I can say can change my actions. I’ve hurt countless people.”

Those words were directed to five people seated directly behind her: family members who’d come out to support her, and the family of the man she killed, who’d come to see her sentenced.

Wednesday, Catterall, 31, was sentenced to serve 20 years of a 40-year sentence for smothering 76-year-old Albert Dubois with a garbage bag in his sleep after he refused to give her money to buy drugs in July 2007. The remaining 20 years of her sentence will be suspended and she will be on probation for 20 years after her release. She will have to undergo drug counseling and testing, and perform 1,000 hours of community service at a rate of at least 50 hours per year. She was also sentenced to serve another year concurrently for a charge of larceny under $500.

The sentence was part of a plea agreement Catterall reached with prosecutors. In exchange for her guilty plea in the murder and larceny counts, the state agreed to dismiss two charges of forgery and cap her potential murder sentence at 60 years with 20 to serve and an additional year for the larceny charge. The state wanted Catterall to receive the maximum sentence, though Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general’s office said the sentence was “fair and proportional.”In sentencing, Judge Stephen P. Nugent said he was impressed by Catterall’s statement and her dedication to rehabilitation, shown by her successful completion of counseling and educational programs since she was arrested in July 2007. He also pointed to the guilty plea (instead of a no-contest plea) as evidence that Catterall had taken responsibility for her actions.

Catterall had known Albert Dubois for about year before she moved in with him. They’d lived together for another year before she killed him.

She’d lost her waitress job at the Hoxsie New York System restaurant in Warwick and was living on the streets, lawyers said Wednesday. Dubois, a frequent customer, invited her to stay with him at his Overbook Avenue home. In exchange, she could clean the house and cook some meals.

Wednesday, the relationship between Catterall and Dubois was alternately painted by lawyers as a voluntary, care-giving relationship and an abusive cycle in which drugs, sex and money were the motivations.

Defense attorney Robert B. Mann said that Dubois also gave Catterall his pain medications — Vicodin and OxyContin — and money to buy drugs in exchange for sex. Mann said that Dubois also required her to pose for suggestive photos that he sold on the Internet.

Special Assistant Attorney General Christian F. Capizzo pointed to Catterall’s initial interviews with the police where she denied having a sexual relationship with Dubois to refute those claims. Healey said that while Dubois did appear to have a hobby of collecting or taking photographs of women in underwear, his private interests were not germane to his relationship with Catterall or his murder.

Both agreed that the night before Dubois died, he and Catterall argued over money. Catterall wanted money to buy drugs and Dubois refused. During the night, she removed a plastic bag from a hamper and placed it over Dubois head. He awoke, Capizzo said, and fought back briefly before falling to the floor. From there, Capizzo said, Catterall took Dubois’ car, went to a cash machine to take money out of his account and went to Providence to shoot heroin.

Robert Morancey, Dubois’ stepson, found the body after he hadn’t seen the car in the driveway for a couple of days and went to check on Dubois. His eyes watered as he sat in court, listening to Wednesday’s proceedings.

Catterall said she is doing all she can to turn her life around while she is behind bars.

“I’m striving every day to be a better person than I was the day before,” she said.

With staff reports

tbuford@projo.com