White River Junction — Louis A. Fucci Jr., the onetime owner of the defunct Benning Street Bar and Grill who pleaded guilty to hiring a hit man to kill his former business partner and ex-girlfriend in 2011, took the stand on Tuesday and told the court he is a changed man.

Prison officials transported Fucci to Windsor Superior Court from Michigan, where he is serving 10 to 15 years for three felony convictions, for a hearing to reconsider his sentence.

Fucci, 59, says he was suffering from an untreated mental illness that had been worsened by personal difficulties at the time he set up the plot to kill Bruce Weissman and Joy Barney, and that his mental state and other factors, including the collapse of his business, weren’t given proper weight by Judge Robert Gerety in determining his sentence in March 2013.

Fucci’s attorney, Dan Sedon, acknowledged that evidence of Fucci’s mental state, as well as other mitigating factors, had been presented at his initial sentencing hearing. He asked Gerety give more weight to the mitigating factors and reconsider Fucci’s sentence. Sedon suggested reducing it to six to 15 years, a time frame that could see Fucci released next fall. He is eligible for release as soon as 2021.

Prosecutor Heidi Remick on Tuesday argued Fucci and Sedon didn’t present evidence that justified a reconsideration. She said no witnesses attested to Fucci’s mental state, which she thought was the main purpose of Tuesday’s hearing.

Gerety took the resentencing motion under advisement and said he would issue his ruling “as quickly as I possibly can.”

Three witnesses did take the stand on Tuesday: Fucci; a psychologist who spoke about the interplay between mental illness and criminal conduct; and an attorney who was a longtime friend of Fucci’s.

“(2011) was really an awful time in my life — the worst time in my life,” Fucci said on the stand. “I had fallen into a dark hole and I didn’t know how to get out.”

He said he suffered from depression and anxiety, had suicidal thoughts and was drinking heavily.

“That was the lowest point of my entire life,” Fucci said. “I was scared of myself and my thoughts.”

The description he gave of his life in summer 2011 was in stark contrast to his life now.

Though he is confined to a prison cell far from the Upper Valley, he said he has taken advantage of every programming opportunity available — mental health or otherwise — to better himself.

“I feel better than I ever have in my entire life,” Fucci said. “There is so much I want to do. Today, my life is so bright and so full of promise.”

He said he was “sincerely remorseful” for his actions, something he previously had told the court.

His plea for a sentence reduction on Tuesday didn’t sit well with Weissman and Barney, both of whom addressed the court.

Barney, who had a victim’s advocate read her impact statement, urged Gerety to keep Fucci’s sentence in place.

She said she left a job she loved and “altered her children’s futures” to separate herself from Fucci.

Barney, who still lives in the Upper Valley, has been preparing for Fucci’s 2021 release date since it was imposed, and if that date is changed, she said, she will have to start that planning process over again.

Weissman, who no longer lives in New England, expressed similar sentiments, saying he still is fearful of what Fucci might do when he is released from prison. Weissman said he believes Fucci embezzled money from the nightclub — which he said wasn’t failing when Fucci closed it in December 2011 — and has cash lying around.

“I am afraid of what will happen when he gets all this cash,” Weissman said. “... a professional hit man ...” he said, trailing off.

“What happens if Mr. Fucci is granted a reduction?” Weissman continued. “Am I in danger? ... Is it fair that I have to be hesitant to come to the Upper Valley? ... I beg the court to consider not granting him his request.”

Fucci’s two college-aged children also were in the gallery on Tuesday, along with more than a dozen other people.

John Holt, a licensed Vermont psychologist, took the stand Tuesday and spoke about a condition known as a “major depressive episode,” which can cause a person to act out of character. He said anxiety-related disorders, which can “distort” a person’s decision-making skills, are closely related to a major depressive episode.

In the motion to reconsider his sentence, Fucci said he was suffering from depression and anxiety, which were worsened by the demise of his business, a divorce and the subsequent loss of his companion.

Holt, though, said he has never treated Fucci and, in fact, has never met him.

“So you aren’t able to tell us what (Fucci’s) diagnoses may or may not have been?” Remick asked Holt.

“You’re correct,” he replied.

“So you can’t tell us if he was suffering from a major depressive episode?” she continued.

“I cannot,” he said.

Sedon emphasized that a person’s mental state in a case like Fucci’s isn’t cause for committing a crime, but can be considered a mitigating factor in a person’s sentence.

David Casier, a Vermont attorney who has been a friend of Fucci’s for more than three decades, also took the stand Tuesday. He said it was “impossible” for him to believe that Fucci hired a hit man to kill two people; only when Fucci admitted guilt could he believe it.

Casier said he didn’t have much contact with Fucci around 2011, but that he had never known him to be violent.

“He was always a good guy,” Casier said. “He was always stand up.”

Remick emphasized that Casier didn’t know Fucci well at the time the plot was planned and therefore couldn’t speak to his mental state at the time.

In her closing argument, Remick said she felt as if Tuesday’s hearing had turned into a “mid-sentence review,” something the criminal court can’t and shouldn’t do. She urged Gerety to keep Fucci’s sentence in place.

“It’s unfair to the victims that we are even having this hearing,” she said. “Nothing substantial has changed to merit a reconsideration of this sentence.”

“I urge the court to not conclude that the defendant was suffering from any mental illness that should bear any mitigating impact on the sentence today,” Remick said.

Fucci received the maximum possible sentence under the capped plea agreement — 10 to 15 years.

Therefore, Sedon argued, Fucci would have received the same sentence as a defendant with an extensive prior criminal record, something Fucci didn’t have.

“That is inherently wrong,” Sedon said.

He said the proposed reduced sentence still would serve the goals of sentencing, including punishment, rehabilitation and deterrence. Fucci also would be under more strict supervision once released, he added.

“I am in your court today pleading for an opportunity to get back to work and redeem myself,” Fucci said. “If you were to give me that opportunity, I would not disappoint you.”

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.

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