New Hampshire man convicted of killing teen to appear at sentencing

By Ted Siefer MANCHESTER N.H. (Reuters) - A New Hampshire man found guilty last month of murdering a 19-year-old female college student has dropped his request to not appear at his sentencing hearing on Thursday. Seth Mazzaglia, 32, had sought to invoke what his lawyers said was his constitutional right not to appear at the sentencing, but dropped the motion after a hearing on the request in Strafford County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. State prosecutors insisted that Mazzaglia be compelled to appear out of fairness to the family of the victim, Elizabeth Marriott, whom Mazzaglia was accused of strangling after she was lured to his apartment as a sex offering. Her family is expected to issue statements at the hearing Thursday. Mazzaglia faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. At Tuesday's hearing, prosecutor Peter Hinckley quoted from a prison phone call Mazzaglia had made after his conviction. "I'm going to have to sit there half-listening to them yell and whine and bitch and moan," Hinckley quoted Mazzaglia saying. After reading that, Hinckley added, "This warrants his presence even more so." It is not clear what prompted Mazzaglia to reconsider. Mazzaglia was accused of having his girlfriend lure Marriott to their apartment so he could have sex with her. The girlfriend became the state's star witness and testified that Mazzaglia strangled Marriott after she rejected his sexual advances and then raped her lifeless body. Marriott's body has not been found. (Editing by Scott Malone and Eric Walsh)