Delaware lawyer gets death sentence for killing mistress

Capano is slated to be executed June 28, but the legal process could take 8 years

March 16, 1999
Web posted at: 10:09 p.m. EST (0309 GMT)

In this story: Juror: He never said he was sorry A tale of 2 mistresses Future legal battles for life and money RELATED STORIES, SITES

WILMINGTON, Delaware (CNN) -- Thomas Capano, a wealthy lawyer who claimed one of his mistresses fatally shot the other, was sentenced to death Tuesday for the murder of his girlfriend, an aide to Delaware's governor.

Capano, 49, showed no emotion as the sentence was read. He mouthed, "It will be all right" to his mother and brother Joseph as he was being led from the packed courtroom.

"He is a ruthless murderer and feels compassion for no one and remorse only for the circumstances he finds himself in today," Superior Court Judge William Swain Lee said.

"The defendant fully expected to get away with it, and if not for his arrogant and controlling nature, he may have succeeded," Lee said.

"He is a malignant force from whom no one he deems disloyal or adversarial can be secure, even if he is incarcerated for the rest of his life," the judge said.

Prosecutors had argued that Capano might try to take revenge on those who testified against him.

He has been charged with trying to arrange from prison the murders of his brother and another mistress.

Juror: He never said he was sorry

Prosecutors alleged Capano killed Fahey because she wanted to end their affair

Capano, a former state prosecutor and political adviser, was found guilty in January of killing Anne Marie Fahey, Gov. Thomas Carper's secretary.

"I'm not going to sit here and beg for my life," Capano told jurors during the sentencing phase of the jury trial. But he did ask them to spare him for the sake of his four daughters, his mother and the rest of his family.

Jurors took only about three hours before voting to recommend execution.

"He never showed remorse," said Erin Reilly, a juror who attended the sentencing Tuesday. "That was the biggest thing. He never said he was sorry."

Fahey's family did not take a position on whether Capano should be executed.

But the victim's sister, Kathleen Fahey-Hosey, said, "The judge summed up in 12 minutes what we've been feeling for two years."

A tale of 2 mistresses

For two years after Fahey's disappearance in June 1996, Capano, a member of a wealthy and influential Wilmington family, claimed to know nothing of her whereabouts.

But in November 1997, Capano's younger brother, Gerard, came forward, telling investigators he was with Thomas Capano on June 28, 1996, when the two dumped a body from his boat 70 miles off the New Jersey coast.

And in surprise testimony during the trial, Thomas Capano admitted dumping Fahey's body in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey. He claimed she had been shot accidentally by another woman, 48-year-old Deborah MacIntyre, his mistress for 17 years.

MacIntyre denied even being at his house the night Fahey died. But MacIntyre testified Capano had her buy him a gun a month before Fahey disappeared.

Prosecutors had alleged that Capano killed Fahey because she wanted to end her secret, three-year affair with the married man.

Future legal battles for life and money

The judge set a June 28 execution date, but it is likely to postponed for years as Capano begins the lengthy appeal process against his conviction and sentence.

It takes an average of 8 1/2 years for a death sentence to be carried out in Delaware.

Capano also faces a battle in civil court. Fahey's family has filed a wrongful death suit against him. They also have sued his brothers and their businesses -- the family fortune was built on real estate and development -- saying they helped cover up Fahey's disappearance.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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