Eric Sweeney will serve a minimum of 54 years in prison for the 2022 murder of his sister-in-law, Kassandra Sweeney, and her two children, Benjamin and Mason, both under the age of 4.
Sweeney was sentenced Friday in a Concord courtroom filled with friends and family of the victims. Kassandra and Sean Sweeney, Eric’s half-brother, had guardianship of Eric, who was 16 years old at the time of the killings.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of more than 100 years in prison for Eric, while his lawyers pointed to his troubled childhood as a mitigating factor. They proposed a sentence of 40 years.
“Two things are very clear in this case,” said Judge John Kissinger, after hearing hours of testimony from friends and loved ones.
“First, Mr. Sweeney — Eric Sweeney, the defendant here — had a horrific early childhood marked by physical sexual abuse and severe neglect. Second, the murders of Kassandra, Benjamin and Mason were unimaginably brutal and heinous.”
Kissinger sentenced Sweeney to 60 years in prison before he can appear before a parole board. However, the judge said that if Sweeney completed a high school and subsequent vocational or college program, he could be eligible after 54 years, when he would be 70 years old.
He called it a “narrow path” for rehabilitation.
“I know that their memories are carried with you forever,” Kissinger told the family and friends of the victims. “And the pain and suffering is also something that will last for the rest of your lives.”
On Aug. 3, 2022, Eric Sweeney removed his brother’s gun from a locked safe kept in the bedroom. He then shot and killed his nephews, who were 4 and 1 at the time, and his sister-in-law, who was 25, in what prosecutors called an unprovoked attack. He then stole Kassandra’s truck, and tossed the weapon out of the window on Interstate 93.
In August, Sweeney, who is now 19 years old, changed his plea to guilty. He stood largely motionless during the judge’s sentencing.
