White River Junction — The South Royalton woman convicted of killing a Bethel man and wounding a young woman during a drug-related incident in 2011 accepted some responsibility for her actions in a letter addressed to the judge who will sentence her to a minimum of 20 years in prison next week.

Emily Perkins, 30, doesn’t explicitly identify what she accepts responsibility for — she was convicted of shooting and killing Scott Hill, 48, and shooting and injuring then-19-year-old Emma Jozefiak, — in her six-page handwritten letter, but she does say her addiction to prescription painkillers fueled the November 2011 incident at Hill’s Bethel mobile home.

“I am in no way blaming drugs alone for my choices. I am responsible for the choices I have made,” Perkins wrote in the letter to Windsor Superior Court Judge Theresa DiMauro. “I can not deny, however, the impact that pills had in what happened. Had addiction never been a factor in my and my husband’s life, I would have never known Scott Hill. I would have never engaged in the extreme behavior that perpetuated the hurt that was inflicted upon my family, their families and my community.”

Perkins said she is a changed person and has made a vow to never use drugs again; she says she has been sober since 2013. She wished she could go back and change the way Nov. 9, 2011, unfolded, she wrote.

“It is my fault they bore so many sorrows. My fault I left a mother in fear for her daughter. My fault for why a son has to live without answers to his father’s passing,” Perkins wrote. “I hate myself for what I have done.”

She continued: “If words could heal the past, I would bleed a million apologies across these pages. I can only try to give honor to the lives of all who have been affected by my actions by never forgetting the consequences of a choice.”

She asked DiMauro for leniency on behalf of her 7- and 8-year-old daughters, who now are living without a mother and a father, and are in the guardianship of their grandparents. Perkins’ husband, Michael, died from brain cancer in 2014. Throughout her 11-day trial, Emily Perkins maintained her husband was responsible for the shooting incident.

However, a jury in March convicted her of voluntary manslaughter and attempted second-degree murder in connection with the drug deal that went awry.

Several other people wrote DiMauro letters urging clemency, all of which were attached to a memorandum Perkins’ lead attorney, Devin McLaughlin, submitted to the court on Thursday.

Most of them also asked DiMauro to keep Perkins’ daughters in mind.

“I don’t want my two little granddaughters to become two more innocent victims of this drug epidemic,” wrote Perkins’ mother, Peggy Ainsworth, who along with her husband, has custody of the girls. “They need their mom.”

Emily Perkins’ mother- and father-in-law, Michael Perkins Sr. and Sherri Perkins, told the judge the stress put on Emily Perkins prior to the shooting contributed to her drug addiction. She was the sole provider for the family and was raising the girls while also taking care of her ailing husband.

“People deal with stress in different ways,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, narcotics was the choice in this situation.”

In the memorandum, McLaughlin asked DiMauro to impose a 20-year minimum sentence, the low end of an agreed-upon 20- to 30-year minimum sentence.

Among the mitigating factors he urged the judge to consider was that Perkins: has no prior criminal record; was a young woman at the time of the incident; had a drug addiction; and wasn’t on her medication for bipolar disorder.

She is now clean, on a medication regimen and has been a model inmate at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, where she has remained since DiMauro held her without bail after the jury verdict, McLaughlin wrote.

If Perkins receives the minimum sentence, she will remain in jail until she is almost 50 years old. Her two daughters will be well into their 20s.

“As argued by the state, Emily was not some depraved individual who went to Mr. Hill’s house with an intent to kill,” McLaughlin wrote. “This was an impulsive act fueled by addiction. Opiate addiction does not legally excuse Emily’s actions, but it is a legitimate counterweight in considering reasonable retribution.”

McLaughlin acknowledges that Perkins hasn’t admitted to the crimes a jury convicted her of, but argues that by itself “cannot be a basis for demanding a greater retribution from her.”

A 20-year minimum sentence is in line with sentences other judges have handed down for similar crimes, he wrote. Attempted second-degree murder carries the presumptive sentence of a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill, who is prosecuting the case, said the 20-year minimum sentence provides a punishment for wounding Jozefiak, but doesn’t hold Perkins to account for Hill’s death.

“Justice requires that the killing of Scott Hill be punished separately and in addition to the attempted murder of Emma Jozefiak,” Cahill said. “It requires that we acknowledge that Ms. Perkins’ actions nearly ended one life and did in fact end another life.”

For that reason, he will ask DiMauro to impose a minimum sentence in excess of 20 years but within the agreed-upon range of up to 30 years.

Cahill and McLaughlin both will argue their points at Perkins’ sentencing hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday in Windsor Superior Court.

If DiMauro accepts the sentencing agreement, she will hand Perkins a minimum sentence of between 20 and 30 years. If she doesn’t accept it, she will impose her own sentence.

Attempted second-degree murder carries a possible maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

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

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