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Hebert sentencing for murdering Massena woman is moved up to Thursday

Posted 4/9/19

CANTON -- The sentencing of the man convicted last month of murdering a Massena woman has been moved up. He faces a minimum of 15 years and up to the rest of his life in state prison for murdering …

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Hebert sentencing for murdering Massena woman is moved up to Thursday

Posted

CANTON -- The sentencing of the man convicted last month of murdering a Massena woman has been moved up.

He faces a minimum of 15 years and up to the rest of his life in state prison for murdering Lacey Yekel in 2014.

A jury found Hebert guilty of murder on Thursday, March 21 after a weeklong trial and just under seven hours of deliberations.

Hebert killed Yekel on or around June 7, 2014 in Massena. Her skeletal remains were recovered from a wooded area near the Massena Industrial Park on Aug. 29, 2014.

At the trial, five witnesses testified that Hebert told them he murdered the 24-year-old. One of his confessions was captured in a 2017 jailhouse recording and played in the courtroom. He can be heard saying he was “consciously aware” of what he was doing and says he killed the woman because he had beat her so severely that he would have gone to prison even if she hadn’t died.

Testimony at trial revealed the killer and victim had been using cocaine together the day of the murder, injecting it with needles. Hebert had agreed to accept guns from Yekel to pay for the cocaine she was getting from him.

They went to the Industrial Park on the night of June 7, but there were no guns there, and that’s when Hebert killed her, according to the evidence presented at trial.

Hebert took the stand in his own defense. He claimed Yekel died of an overdose after injecting a large dose of cocaine. He also claimed to have lied to people about murdering Yekel in order to look tough and gain clout among his criminal associates.

But the jury didn’t buy it. A juror after the conclusion of the trial said they felt Hebert’s overdose story was made up, and hearing him admit to the murder on tape was a big part of what pushed them to reach a guilty verdict.