Man will spend life in prison for murder

YOUNGSTOWN — Connie Carpenter wanted a judge to know Friday, just before he sentenced the man convicted of killing her daughter to life in prison without parole, that her daughter’s life was more than what was portrayed at trial.

She acknowledged to Judge John Durkin that her 30-year-old daughter, Collena Carpenter, had a drug addiction and it was painful to hear the details of that addiction while the man convicted of killing her, David Hackett, 54, was on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

But she said she remembers her daughter as a funny woman who loved her son.

“That [addiction] was only a small portion of her life,” Connie Carpenter said. “She was a hard worker. She was a great mom. She had a sense of humor that was unbelievable. She could find something funny in just about any situation.”

Hackett, 54, was convicted Tuesday of aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping.

Collena Carpenter of Columbiana County was found Oct. 13, 2013, stabbed 81 times.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said that at the time of Carpenter’s slaying, Hackett was on parole for another aggravated murder he was convicted of in 1979 and had had other brushes with the law since he had been released from prison.

Cantalamessa asked for life without parole, saying that would be the best way to protect society from Hackett.

Judge Durkin said the best way to make sure Hackett could not hurt anyone else again was to make sure he never gets out of prison.