‘We have some peace’ — South Royalton man sentenced to life in prison for wife’s 2018 murder

WOODSTOCK — More than seven years after he shot and killed his wife in front of her 5-year-old nephew at their South Royalton home, 77-year-old Frank Sanville was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison this week.

The sentence delivered a long-delayed measure of justice to loved ones of Wanda Sanville. Before the sentence was pronounced, they told the court how Frank Sanville’s violent temper and penchant for cruelty terrorized their lives for years before he killed his estranged wife.

“Yeah!” Todd Hosmer, Wanda Sanville’s brother, exclaimed from the back row of the courtroom when the judge delivered the sentence. “Gotcha!”

Judge Heather Gray delivered the maximum sentence that state prosecutors had sought in Windsor County Courthouse in Woodstock on Monday morning.

Defense attorney Chris Montgomery, who argued unsuccessfully for leniency, said the punishment amounts to a “death sentence” for Sanville, given his age and health issues.

Sanville has been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer that doctors estimate leaves him less than five years to live, Montgomery told the court.

From the bench, Gray said that Sanville’s terminal diagnosis “does not outweigh the horrific crime with which he’s being sentenced today,” Gray said from the bench,

She emphasized that he “made a conscious decision to take” Wanda Sanville’s life, an act itself that also “forever changed the lives of the many family and friends of Wanda.”

Sanville’s sentence includes 20 years to life for second-degree murder plus an additional four- to five-year sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Frank Sanville shot his 48-year-old wife in the head at near point-blank range while she was sitting on the couch playing a video game with her nephew at their Happy Hollow Road home on March 4, 2018.

Todd Hosmer, who was staying at the Sanville home at the request of his sister who feared her safety, managed to grab the .22 rifle and wrestle Frank Sanville to the floor. Sanville briefly escaped and hid in a nearby barn until he was located by police.

At the time of the killing, Sanville had been out of prison only a few days on furlough after a domestic assault conviction in which Wanda Sanville had been the victim.

The shooting exposed the failure of the Vermont Department of Corrections’ probation and parole office to deem Frank Sanville unsafe for release into the public.

In an interview on Monday, Hosmer said that he was filled with remorse over not being able to protect his sister, whom he described as “my best friend,” and has suffered severe bouts of anxiety and depression since her death. His son, who witnessed the murder, also suffers from trauma, he said.

The case initially appeared headed for sentencing when Sanville entered a guilty plea in 2022. But 11 months later, he attempted to withdraw his plea, claiming he hadn’t understood what he was agreeing to because he is illiterate.

Gray flatly rejected that argument last year, and ruled she didn’t find Sanville’s claim credible.

Appearing shackled at the feet and wearing blue prison garb over a loose, gray sweatshirt, Sanville’s head was shaved, a marked difference from the scraggly shoulder-length hair he had during his last public hearing in 2023.

He sat motionless during the approximately hour-long proceeding, including the 20 minutes while the judge retired to consider what sentence to impose. He barely exchanged a word with his court-appointed attorney.

Sanville will receive credit for the approximately seven years he has been held without bail.

Tina Swasey, Wanda Sanville’s sister, recalled how her sister, who was eight years her junior, adored the animals at their grandparents’ farm, where they spent a lot of time together growing up.

“She always took care of them. They were like her little pets,” Swasey said of the cows, horses, goats, chickens and ducks. Wanda Sanville also liked to babysit Swasey’s children and spent hours playing with them, naturally maternal even though she did not have children of her own, Swasey said.

Wanda Sanville “always tried to help people, especially the older folks. She had an old soul,” Swasey said of her sister.

But her joyful and happy attitude changed after she married Frank Sanville, who tried to keep his wife away from her own family, even to the point of blocking her from attending their mother’s funeral, Swasey said.

Another time she remembered seeing Wanda Sanville at their mother’s home and she was “bruised all over” from being assaulted by Sanville, she said.

During Christmas 2017, only three months before the murder, Swasey recalled her sister was feeling safe for the first time in years.

“She was happy because (Sanville) was in jail,” Swasey said.

In a victim impact statement, Hosmer described other episodes from the Sanville marriage, including once when his sister was found “completely naked and bloody walking down the road at 1 a.m.” after having been violently assaulted by Frank Sanville.

There had been psychological abuse in addition to physical abuse, Hosmer explained.

“Frank also one day took his ex-wife’s ashes from the urn, dumped them on the ground in front of Wanda and said, ‘she’s a better woman than you ever would be,’ ” Hosmer said, referring to his brother-in-law as “an evil bastard.”

Rachel Chapin, the mother of Hosmer’s son, said that the boy, who is now 11 years old, “has nightmares, behavioral issues, fear and trust issues” that she attributes to the trauma of witnessing the killing.

“You are a total waste of air,” Chapin’s statement said. “You took (away) Wanda, a woman who was loved by many and who respected everyone. She would take the shirt off her back to help anyone. She loved and trusted you, even though all you did was control her … she even lied for you to protect you.”

“You don’t deserve to be on earth … Hell is even too good for you,” she said, noting that Sanville for now is spared that fate because he gets to be “saved by jail.”

“Thank you, good job,” Hosmer said as he shook the hand of Windsor County State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough, who led the prosecution against Sanville..

“We got what we wanted,” Hosmer said as he left the courtroom with a group of six family and friends who had shown up to witness Sanville’s sentencing.

“After seven years, we have some peace,” he said.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.