Carlos Asencio slated for sentencing Thursday in 2019 murder of Amanda Dabrowski
WORCESTER - Carlos Asencio is slated to receive a life sentence Thursday for the 2019 murder of Amanda Dabrowski at O’Connor’s Restaurant & Bar.
The sentencing comes a week after a Worcester Superior Court jury rejected the 32-year-old’s insanity defense and convicted him of first-degree murder.
The sentence will not be in question, as adults convicted of first-degree murder in Massachusetts face a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Before the sentence is officially imposed, loved ones of Dabrowski and others victimized by the public crime will have a chance to give victim impact statements if they choose.
The 31-year-old microbiologist, who prosecutors said Asencio hunted down and viciously stabbed inside O’Connor’s on July 3, 2019, built a considerable following online blogging about wine.
She had briefly dated Asencio in the months before her death, prosecutors said at trial, and he planned out her murder amid anger and jealousy after she ended things.
Evidence at trial indicated Asencio broke into her Ayer home on Easter Sunday 2019 and attacked her before fleeing the country, returning and tracking her to O'Connor's using a cellphone he duct-taped under her SUV.
He then, according to medical examiner testimony, stabbed Dabrowski 58 times with multiple knives in a brutal attack that was captured on surveillance video.
Asencio will also be sentenced upon a conviction related to allegations he stabbed a restaurant patron as he intervened during the attack.
The patron, Allen Corson Jr., was not gravely injured, and was among those District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. praised for their actions last week after the verdict.
Asencio still faces charges in Middlesex Superior Court related to the assault at Dabrowski’s Ayer apartment.
His lawyer declined after the verdict last week to say what might become of those allegations, which mental health experts at the murder trial indicated he admitted to during interviews.
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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Carlos Asencio slated for sentencing in murder of Amanda Dabrowski
