Man gets prison for neighbor's death

SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time in the nearly two years since Martin Vuksinick, Jr. entered the home of neighbor and friend Kimberly Hain and beat her to death with a baseball bat, the man spoke about what he had done.

"I take full responsibility for using drugs and killing Kim Hain," the 19-year-old said Monday. "I have destroyed a family's life. I took a mother away from her two kids, and I knew how much she loved those kids. Our families were so close and I ruined that forever."

He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison by 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton Monday for aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, in connection with the May 2009 beating death. In exchange for his guilty plea in December, prosecutors dropped charges of aggravated burglary and obstruction of justice.

"If I could change the past I would," he said. "What I did was horrible and I deserve to be punished for it."

Vuksinick cried throughout the hearing, as did many others in the courtroom packed with family and friends there for both him and Hain. But his remorse didn't affect Hain's mother, Vicki Lewis, who had strong words for the man who killed her daughter.

"(Vuksinick) will never amount to what Kim scraped off the bottom of her shoes. We hope he spends every day in misery and eternity rotting in hell," she said.

She ripped into the man whom her daughter's family had befriended, saying that he not only took a mother from her two children but left them with the disturbing image of finding her dead in her bedroom.

"I will always remember the pain caused by an 8-year-old grandson asking what happened to his mother's face and a 6-year-old granddaughter drawing pictures of her mother in a blood-soaked bed," Lewis said. "They loved (Vuksinick). Why did he do this?"

She said when people were introduced to her daughter, they didn't just meet her, but "experienced" her. "She didn't walk, she bounced."

"The reason we are all so close is because of the things Kim did for everyone," said her husband, Patrick Hain. "There is no way to replace Kim and no sentence stiff enough for the person who killed her."

The death penalty was originally an option in the case, but prosecutors decided not to pursue it because of Vuksinick's young age when he committed the murder. He was 18. Hain's family agreed with the decision primarily because they didn't want the children to have to endure a trial.

"If it had just been a matter of adults testifying, then the family would have encouraged the state to take it to trial ... but when it came down to the children having to testify about finding their mother and having to wait until their dad got home, the family decided it wasn't worth it," victim's advocate attorney Brandon Simmons said.

The Hains' two children, Terran, 9, and Callie, 8, were both present at the hearing.

"I feel sad about my mom," Callie said. "I feel sorry for my mom and I'm pretty sad today."

Patrick Hain said his focus is on helping those children move past what happened to their mother. For him, "it was nice to hear" Vuksinick's apology.

"I believe that he feels sorry for what he did," he said. "He, like all the rest of us, loved her and I think that's the real pain that comes in all of this. There is nobody that wins."

While the family plans to attend Vuksinick's first parole hearing to argue for more prison time, he said he hopes the family will be able to heal now that the court process is complete.

"We are hopefully going to press forward as a family and try to regain trust and hope and love for the rest of our lives," Patrick Hain said. "Even though we put this behind us, you can't put Kim behind you."

E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com

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