WINNIPEG — A man who admitted to killing his girlfriend nine years ago in Winnipeg asked a judge Tuesday to give him a harsh sentence.
Traigo Andretti, 40, was already serving a life sentence for murdering his wife in British Columbia 2012.
On Tuesday he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years after pleading guilty to murdering and dismembering Myrna Letandre in Winnipeg October 2006. Her remains weren’t found until May, 2013
READ MORE: RCMP announce arrest in 2006 cold case homicide
The details of this case are so gruesome the family found it difficult to hear.
On October 6, 2006, Andretti was in a short term relationship with Letandre and were living together in his Lorne Avenue home in Point Douglas.
In court Andretti, who was representing himself, told Justice Chris Martin that during an argument he strangled Letandre and dragged her body to the bathroom where he dismembered her, discarding parts of her body in a back alley dumpster. He lit the garbage bin on fire and buried other body parts in the crawl space of his Lorne Avenue home.
Soon after, he met another woman and lived in the same house for 10 months before moving with the woman to British Columbia.
He murdered her in 2012 and went to police and confessed to both killings.
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Andretti told court he was on anti-depressants and blames the medication for the killings and asked the judge for the maximum sentence.
“I tried to justify to myself after the fact that she was in pain but I don’t think there was anything except evil involved so I’d like to have the maximum sentence of 25 years,” Andretti said.
Because he didn’t have a lawyer, Justice Martin had to question him about his upbringing and his relationship with Letandre.
“We went for walks in the community, she knew of places we could eat…we had fun just walking around town,” Andretti said. “She was a good listener she was patient.”
“So what happened?” Martin asked.
“I don’t understand the way things happened that night.”
“Why did you kill her?” Martin asked.
“I think it was because of the medicine I was taking,” Andretti said, “I didn’t associate it with the meds until it happened the second time.”
READ MORE: Police find remains of woman reported missing in 2006
Justice Martin asked him, “Is there anything you want to say to the family?”
Andretti replied “No,” took a long pause then said, “I am sorry but that seems insufficient to the loss.”
Andretti was already serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife.
“I had been fantasizing about killing my wife for 5 years but I didn’t know I was going to do when I did it.”
He’ll serve both sentences at the same time. Justice Martin told him, “you’ll never be released from incarceration for the rest of your life.”
Winnipeg Police say Andretti is not being investigated with any other murder.
Andretti was arrested as part of Project Devote, a Winnipeg Police and RCMP task force to find missing and murdered women. Andretti was the first conviction in Project Devote.
WATCH: Winnipeg police acknowledge guilty plea of Traigo Andretti
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