Double murderer asks to be released from prison early

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Two decades after her murder conviction — and years after a high-profile prison escape — Sarah Pender is asking an Indiana judge for a second chance.

A Marion County judge heard Pender’s request to modify her 110-year sentence, according to WRTV. Now 46, she told the court she accepts responsibility for her role in the 2000 killings of her roommates, Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman, but said 25 years behind bars and five years in solitary confinement amount to a debt paid.

“I am asking for a chance to be free and not die in prison,” Pender said.

Prosecutors once portrayed Pender as the mastermind, though her ex-boyfriend Richard Hull has long insisted he acted alone.

Pender was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 45 years for each killing, plus additional time.

In 2008, she escaped from the Rockville Correctional Facility with help from a correctional officer with whom she’d developed an intimate relationship. She was captured four months later in Chicago. “

I paid a horrible price for it,” she told the court, referencing five years in solitary confinement.

Former Marion County Prosecutor Larry Sells—who once compared Pender to Charles Manson—now says he was wrong and that her sentence is a “major injustice.” Her legal team argues she has transformed since committing the crime at age 21.

“I am so sorry for the terrible loss you suffered and for the role I played in it,” Pender said.

The judge took the petition under advisement and has 30 days to decide. Pender’s family hopes a ruling could come by Christmas.