Providence man to serve 42 years in prison for strangling woman: 'We can deliver justice'
A judge has ordered a 38-year-old Providence man to serve 42 years in prison for the strangling death of a 54-year-old woman with a power cord.
Superior Court Judge Richard Raspallo gave Efrain Blanco a total of 60 years, with 42 to serve and 18 years suspended with probation, on Wednesday.
In January, Blanco had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2015 death of Zenaida Pacheco inside her apartment on the fourth floor of Charlesgate East on Randall Street in Providence.
Blanco emerged as a suspect after Providence police detectives gathered evidence that included cellphone records and surveillance footage and after local media disseminated photos of him.
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Laboratory testing confirmed Blanco's DNA on the power cord.
Blanco pleaded guilty in January.
"He deserves every one of the 42 years imprisonment to which he has been sentenced,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement, referring to Pacheco as a "woman much loved by her family and her community."
"Nothing can return Zenaida to her family, but we can deliver justice for her and for them, and that has now been achieved," he said.
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Efrain Blanco sentenced to prison for murder of Zenaida Pacheco
