Crime & Safety

Prosecutors Portray Mazzaglia as a Scheming, Sexual 'Animal'

Prosecutors say Seth Mazzaglia brutally attacked Lizzi Marriott before she was murdered.

By Dan Tuohy/NH Patch 

A manipulative Seth Mazzaglia lured Lizzi Marriott to his apartment where he strangled her with a rope, "muttering insults" to her as he raped her and she gave her last breath, prosecutors said in opening arguments May 28.

Mazzaglia is on trial in Strafford County Superior Court in Dover, N.H., for the murder of Marriott, a 19-year-old student at the University of New Hampshire.

Prosecutor Peter Hinckley asked jurors, upon reviewing the evidence, to find him guilty of his crimes, including conspiracy and tampering with witnesses.

"He committed despicable crimes against his victim, and since then he has literally been trying to get away with murder."

Marriott was last seen Oct. 9, 2012. Mazzaglia told investigators, based on his arrest warrant, that he and his then girlfriend, Kat McDonough, dumped Marriott's body off a ledge on Peirce Island in Portsmouth. Her body has never been found, but prosecutors say evidence was found at that scene. 

McDonough struck a plea deal last year and is expected to testify against Mazzaglia. Central to the defense is one of Mazzaglia's stories that the sexual encounter at his apartment was consensual.

Hinckley, in his opening arguments, said it was anything but consensual. He described Mazzaglia as a devious, controlling person who deemed himself a "master" in sadomasochistic bondage.

Marriott was lured to his apartment, and lied to, and spurned his advances, according to the prosecution.

"That's what was on the defendant's mind: Sex, domination, control, obedience, violence," Hinckley said. "The master was not to be denied. he continued sexual pursuit of his victim after she said no."

After Marriott declined to participate in a bondage sex act, after what started as a game of strip poker, she and McDonough continued to watch a movie. That was when, Hinckley said, Mazzaglia came up behind her and put a rope around her neck and yanked yard.

"Lizzi never had a chance," he said. "The defendant choked her from behind with that rope for minutes until she could no longer deny him."

Hinckley said Mazzaglia and McDonough concocted a lie, that it was a consensual sex act gone horribly wrong.

Hinckley said the defense, that it was consensual, fails to make any sense.


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