ALFRED, Maine — An Acton woman who fatally stabbed her husband in the chest with a knife in front of their two children was sentenced Monday to 32 years in prison.
Kandee Weyland Collind was charged with the Feb. 22, 2017 murder of her ex-husband, Scott Weyland, just down Milton Mills Road from the home the couple had lived in with their two children.
The children, who were 7 and 11 at the time, witnessed the crime.
Collind had just learned that her ex-husband had been granted custody of the children.
Under terms of a plea agreement, Collind pleaded guilty to murder in August 2018 in exchange for a sentence of 32 years, but two months later attempted, unsuccessfully, to withdraw that plea, saying she hadn't taken psychiatric medication the day she agreed to the plea, the Portland Press Herald reported.
On Monday, attorney Verne Paradie argued for a 25-year sentence, but said following the sentencing that had Collind not pleaded guilty and instead gone to trial -- which could have meant her children would testify -- Douglas could have sentenced her to 45 years.
Paradie said that given the factors of the case -- the presence of her children at the murder was "a significant aggravating factor," he said -- the sentence was "within the realm of a reasonable sentence."
Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam, who prosecuted the case, said, "We are grateful that these two children, who witnessed their mother murder their father, were spared the further ordeal of having to testify."