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'You Wrecked My Life,' Woman Screams Before Stabbing Husband To Death In Front Of Kids
Kandee Collind and Scott Weyland were in the midst of a vicious custody battle before the murder took place.
A Maine woman who admitted she fatally stabbed her ex-husband in front of their two young children will spend the next 32 years in prison.
Kandee Collind, a 49-year-old resident of Acton, pleaded guilty to murder last year in the death of her former husband, Scott Weyland. Collind had separated from Weyland in 2016 and the two were embroiled in a bitter custody battle that turned fatal the morning of Feb. 22, 2017, according to The Portland Press Herald.
Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam said Collind drove to Weyland's residence that morning, ignoring the pleas of her family members and a protective order after learning her ex-husband would gain primary custody of their children.
Prosecutors played an audio recording of a 911 call, where the court could hear the 11-year-old son of Weyland and Collind frantically calling for help after their mother confronted their father with a knife, telling him he "wrecked [her] life."
“My mother stabbed my dad in the chest,” the boy told the dispatcher in the recording.
“They tried to help their father as he lay dying,” Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas said during the ruling, according to the local outlet. “There is a profound, potentially long-term impact on children who witness domestic violence and domestic violence homicide.”
The judge did acknowledge during the sentencing there were hardships in Collind’s life, including abuse in her childhood and financial struggles in her adulthood, but noted she ultimately chose to go to her ex-husband's residence armed with a knife.
“She bears the emotional and psychological scars from these life experiences as reflected in her long involvement with the mental health system and her dependence on medicines,” Douglas said. “All of that certainly set the stage for what happened on Feb. 22, but it did not predestine it. It did not cause it."
For her part, Collind delivered a rambling statement in court where she apologized to Weyland's family and claimed her memories of the murder were hazy.
Collind's 32-year sentence was the maximum allowed under her plea agreement.
The prosecution had argued for that full amount, and had told the judge they would have sought "substantially" more time in prison had Collind's case gone to trial, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Weyland and Collind's children did not attend the hearing.
When Collind was escorted out after her sentence was handed down, she looked at her family in attendance and simply said, "Bye," the Portland Press Herald reports.
