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Confessed killer Vernon Bartley apologized to the family and friends of victim Karen Ertell in state court this morning before a judge imposed a life prison sentence.
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I would do anything for you guys. Forgive me,” Bartley said.
Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall sentenced Bartley, 18, to life in prison plus 10 years, with the opportunity for parole, for the May 2007 strangulation of his Ewa Beach neighbor, 51-year-old Karen Ertell.
It is the sentence to which Bartley had agreed to avoid the possibility of a life prison sentence without parole.
Crandall also ordered Bartley to repay the state’s crime victim compensation fund $2,702 and fined him $1,050.
Bartley was 15 when he admitted to police that he ambushed Ertell in her carport and choked her from behind until she stopped breathing. The state prosecuted him as an adult because the state Family Court waived its jurisdiction.
