PORTLAND, Maine — On Thursday afternoon, a New York man was found guilty of killing his married lover in a Portland apartment in November 2012.
After an eight-day trial, jurors found 21-year-old Anthony Pratt Jr. guilty of shooting and killing 29-year-old Rita Fisenko Scott. Her body was found two months later inside an SUV parked at a Portland motel.
Prosecutors say Scott was separated from her husband at the time and living with her drug dealer and his wife. Police said it was in that apartment where Pratt shot and killed Scott. The two were having a sexual relationship.
Outside the courthouse, Scott’s father held on to a picture of his murdered daughter, who he says got into trouble and didn’t have time to fix herself:
“She’s my daughter, and no one will ever replace her no matter what sentence we get. … It was really hard to hear all the negative things said about her when she’s not here to stand up for herself,” Vladimir Fisenko, Scott’s father, said in Russian.
Scott’s parents said they’re pleased with the guilty verdict, but all they can do now is look at pictures of their daughter, visit her at the cemetery and remember her.
Pratt is expected to be sentenced mid-November.