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Family and friends of Virginia Cookson described for nearly an hour Tuesday morning how much she mattered and the hole her murder left in their lives.
Their statements came as Richard Keith Thorpe, 44, was sentenced to life in prison by Penobscot County Judge Ann Murray. A jury convicted Thorpe of murder on June 1, after Cookson, 39, of Bangor was found dead on the floor of her Larkin Street home on Sept. 25, 2024.
Sixteen people made statements about Cookson, including how her laugh was infectious and how people were drawn to her. Among the speakers asking for Thorpe to be held accountable were his mother, stepfather and uncle.
Cookson met Thorpe while he was on an early release from prison for domestic violence aggravated assault. They dated for about five months before she broke up with him. Thorpe picked up his belongings from Cookson’s house on Sept. 24, 2025, while she was not home. Video footage shows Thorpe starting to drive away, as expected, Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman said.
Then Thorpe changed his mind, backed up and waited at the house for her to return from work, Bozeman said. In the hours after, Thorpe severely beat Cookson, leaving her covered in bruises and causing a brain hemorrhage.
Thorpe then strangled Cookson with an HDMI cord after wrapping it around her neck twice. He used enough force to give himself a blood blister and tied the cord into a knot, Bozeman said.
“She would have known she was going to die,” Bozeman said. “She would have had conscious suffering and she would have been in absolute terror from what this man was doing to her.”
After Thorpe’s conviction, he called his mother from a recorded jail phone. The seven-minute audio was played in court Tuesday. In the recording, Thorpe’s mother asks again and again why he did it and describes all the lives he’s ruined.
Thorpe claimed Cookson had a disease and was spreading it to people, including him, to kill them, he said in the recording. Thorpe said his defense team refused to use the evidence.
“I think it’s manslaughter or self-defense,” Thorpe said in the recording. “My life is over. What is there to justify? She committed suicide is what she did.”
His mother then ended the call.
As the audio played, Thorpe turned to the courtroom full of Cookson’s friends and said, “This is the truth.”
The claims are so outrageous that it points to mental health issues, which are also evident because he was first institutionalized at 13 for suicidal ideation, his defense attorney, James Howaniec, said.
Thorpe spoke during the sentencing to say he was “whacked out of his mind” the night of Cookson’s death, and that while she was a good person, everything was not as perfect as people said.
“I got to apologize to Karmyn [Cookson’s daughter],” Thorpe said. “I’m sorry that I killed your mother. I didn’t plan it. It wasn’t something that I thought was going to happen.”
It’s clear there’s no remorse from Thorpe, Murray said. That’s clear with the “strikingly chilling” phone call from jail, as well as the statement he made in court, she said.
A sentence won’t bring Cookson back, multiple people said. Her death has left a permanent emptiness.
Cookson and Amber Jordan were best friends since they were 12, Jordan said. Their lives were woven together and they started getting horror-themed tattoo sleeves together because of their shared love of horror movies.
“She should have had decades more,” Jordan said. “Virigina deserved a lifetime. She deserved to grow old. She deserved to watch Karmyn grow older.”
Thorpe is being held in the Penobscot County Jail until he is transferred to the Maine State Prison in Warren. Howaniec said they will appeal the life sentence.