BRADENTON — The second of two men convicted of killing 74-year-old Janice Fore in her Northwest Bradenton home will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Circuit Judge Diana Moreland on Thursday sentenced Otis C. Mack III, 21, to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Fore’s May 21, 2008, killing. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and burglary in September.
In April, Moreland sentenced another man, 21-year-old Marcos Herrera, to life in prison on a first-degree murder charge in Fore’s murder. His case remains on appeal.
Herrera and Mack had separate trials with identical outcomes — a jury finding they broke into Fore’s home and attacked her in her bedroom.
Herrera and Mack shoved a sock in Fore’s mouth, wrapped duct tape around it, and stole a computer from her home.
Manatee County Sheriff’s Office investigators later discovered Herrera had rented a room across the street from Fore’s home for nearly five months prior to the killing.
Doctors testified in both trials that Fore, who suffered from a lung disease, suffocated from the stress of the attack and being gagged.
Defense attorneys conceded that Mack had been with Herrera during the burglary, but argued that he was scared of Herrera and an unwilling participant.
But jurors agreed with prosecutors who pointed to Mack’s fingerprints on duct tape used to bind Fore as proof he took part in the violence.
Neither family members of Fore nor Mack attended the sentencing hearing Thursday, as a life sentence was mandatory upon his conviction.
Moreland also sentenced Mack to 15 years on the burglary charge, but said nothing else of the case.
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