Life terms handed down in hotel-sex killing

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

A Pennsylvania woman convicted of killing a tourist in a Las Vegas hotel room was sentenced to life in prison Monday.

District Judge John McGroarty sentenced Paulette Perry, 35, to two life sentences without the possibility of parole in the April 2001 stabbing death of 44-year-old David Sygnarski of Easton, Pa.

McGroarty ordered the sentences run consecutively.

"The things I've done wrong I apologize for," Perry, an admitted prostitute and drug addict, said before the sentence was handed down. "There's nothing more I can say. I just ask for mercy."

Monday's sentencing was a formality. Jurors had already decided on Perry's punishment during the penalty phase of her February trial.

The same jurors had convicted Perry of murder with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

Defense attorney David Shieck plans to pursue Perry's appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, said defense attorney Andrew Myers, who represented Perry at the initial trial.

"I'm surprised the jury gave no consideration to a reduced penalty," Myers said.

When deciding Perry's punishment, jurors should have given more weight to Perry's "incredibly nasty childhood," Myers said.

Prosecutors said Perry and her boyfriend, Kenneth Grant, 35, both of Greensburg, Pa., used a promise of sex to lure Sygnarski into a room at the now defunct Maxim hotel, less than a block from the Strip.

Grant is to be tried Sept. 8 on similar murder, robbery and conspiracy charges and faces life in prison if convicted.

Sygnarski's body was found April 26, 2001, under a bed in Perry's room. He had been covered in cleaning fluids and wrapped in garbage bags.