Murderer serving life sentence released after case 'slipped through the proverbial cracks'

PLAINFIELD - Two days after an appellate court wrote that his case had "slipped through the proverbial cracks for nearly 30 years," 58-year-old Mark Sette was released from prison, where he had been serving a life sentence for a 1988 murder in Plainfield.

Sette won his appeal last week of a resentencing on the charges in what the court described as "an early morning rampage" on March 21, 1988, in which he mortally stabbed one of his roommates in the condominium they shared in the Victoria Square development on East Seventh Street, wounded another roommate and attempted to stab two neighbors.

That resentencing in 2020 had originally been ordered by an appellate court in 1992 when it affirmed Sette's murder conviction, but reversed an attempted murder conviction. That ruling also said Sette should be resentenced because of the consecutive sentences imposed by the trial judge, Miriam Span.

After a six-week trial in the spring of 1989, Sette was found guilty of murdering Rosemary Devaney, attempted murder of Peter Johnson, two counts of aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a hunting knife, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, aggravated assault against a police officer and resisting arrest.

The jury decided against the death penalty for Sette, but Span sentenced him to a term of life plus 38 years with 40 years of parole ineligibility.

The matter lay dormant for 26 years until Sette, representing himself, filed a motion for the resentencing in September 2018.

According to court papers, Sette claimed that in March 1993 he was assigned a counsel to represent him after the first appeal, but "never heard back from the public defender or the Union County Prosecutor's Office."

Sette was then assigned another lawyer. and because Span had retired, another Union County Superior Court judge was assigned the resentencing.

Sette's lawyer then argued that the new judge should consider Sette's rehabilitation while in prison and his age, 23, at the time of the murder. Sette's lawyer also said that a new pre-sentencing report should be ordered.

But, court papers say, after hearing Devaney's family, Sette's family and Sette at the resentencing and without ordering a pre-sentencing report, the judge sentenced Sette to life in prison plus 18 years with 30 years to be served without parole.

Sette then appealed that ruling and on Jan. 10, the appellate court agreed with him.

Though the law does not require a new pre-sentencing report, the appellate court wrote in its decision, "the three-decade gap between (Sette's) original sentence and resentencing warranted an updated (report)."

The report would have provided information whether Sette had participated in any substance abuse programs while in prison and whether those programs would have conflicted with Sette's Buddhist beliefs as his defense counsel had argued. Sette converted from Catholicism to Buddhism while in prison.

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The appellate panel concluded that the judge "erroneously" sentenced Sette without ordering a pre-sentencing report.

In addition, the appellate court ruled that Sette's age at the time of the murder should be weighed as a mitigating factor in formulating a sentence. At that time Sette had no criminal record.

At his 1989 trial, Sette asserted the defense of involuntary and pathological intoxication. He claimed he did not know what he was doing because of a combination of cocaine, marijuana and Co-Tylenol and by an accumulation of toxic pesticides in his body during his employment for several years as a landscape worker.

But the prosecution argued that the murder and other acts were prompted by sexual revenge.

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In the trial, Sette testified he had been upset because a week before the incident, he had an argument with his long-standing girlfriend.

On the night before the incident, Sette testified, he went to his room in the condominium and wanted to die. He took cocaine and a dozen Co-Tylenol tablets.

Then, he said, everything went "crazy" and he could remember little except that he thought he was dead and nothing was real, according to court papers of the 1992 appeal.

After his arrest on the day of the murder, Sette was admitted to Trenton Forensic Hospital because he was confused, delusional and suicidal, court papers say. He was released almost two weeks later after being diagnosed with psychosis secondary to drug abuse.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Murderer serving life sentence released after case 'slipped through the proverbial cracks'