BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) –
It's been a painful two years for the family of Nichole Cable.
Today they learned her killer, 22 year-old Kyle Dube of Orono, will spend 60 years in prison.
Nichole Cable disappeared after walking away from her home in Glenburn on Mother's Day, 2013... Police say she had arranged to meet someone she was messaging with on Facebook.
Although she didn't know it at the time, that "someone" turned out to be Kyle Dube, using a fake account. After eight days of searching, police found Cable's body under some leaves in woods near Old Town.
She had been bound and gagged. The cause of her death was determined to be asphyxiation.
Police arrested Kyle Dube the next day. He was found guilty this past March.
The judge's decision Friday afternoon fell somewhere in the middle of what attorneys were asking. Dube's defense wanted less of a sentence, state prosecutors wanted a harsher one.
The state had asked for Dube to serve two consecutive sentences for his murder and kidnapping charges.That would have put him behind bars for 90 years.
Dube's defense asked for both sentences to be served concurrently and a total sentence of 45 years.
The judge decided there were more aggravating factors in the case that called for a more severe punishment than mitigating ones which would call for a lesser punishment.
That's why Dube's murder sentence is well above Maine's 25-year minimum. The judge also decided Dube will serve the sentences concurrently.
Dube's attorneys plan to appeal the judge's decision.
"It's difficult for anyone to be happy about 60 years," said defense attorney, Stephen Smith. "It's a significant sentence. It does allow him for some hope of getting out when he's in his seventies."
State attorneys say they are not worried about that. Instead, they're just pleased with today's outcome, even though it's not the one they and Cable's family were asking for.
"They were looking for more of a sentence," said assistant attorney general, Leane Zainea. "They understood that the 60 years was a good sentence that was imposed."
Dube's attorneys have already filed an appeal of his murder conviction.
When asked about that appeal state prosecutors said Dube, "has zero chance of success."
