Librarian's Murderer Receives Life Sentence

Staff -- Library Journal, 1/15/2001

Oakland County, MI, Circuit Court Judge Richard Kuhn sentenced Donna Trapani to life without parole, January 9, for orchestrating the first-degree murder of librarian Martha Fulton. Trapani, a Florida resident, paid three assassins $7500 to carry out the murder of Fulton, so she could continue an affair with the librarian's husband. The killers, Sybil A. Padgett, Patrick A. Alexander, and Kevin Ouellette, who were also found guilty, drove from Florida to Orion Township, MI, and carried out the murder in the library parking lot, shooting the victim in the face, chest, and abdomen, October 4, 1999. She was found lying beside her car by library staffers the following morning. The trio had flattened one of her car's tires to ensure that she could not escape. Trapani maintained her innocence throughout the trial, insisting that Fulton's husband, George, had hired the killers and had framed her for the crime. "The jury didn't believe your story, and neither do I," the judge told her before sending her to prison for the remainder of her life. She is 47. Padgett and Ouellette also received life without parole, while Alexander received 80 years.