[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SEAGULLS SQUAWKING]
[WATER SLOSHING]
Mom loved the beach.
We would go every weekend in the summer.
She was fun.
She was spunky, young mom.
My name is Angelina Fernandes, and Stephanie Fernandes
is my mother.
Angelina is my everything.
I really can't imagine anything without her.
I just remember feeling the joy when
she would tuck me in at night and give me the nighttime kiss.
I feel like I've done a pretty good job with raising her.
[BROODING MUSIC]
She wanted to have that picture-perfect,
all-American-dream family with a nice house and kids.
Who are these two people?
The lady is my mom, and the man is Andrew Wagner.
My mom met him when I was six years old.
It's been said that you would call him your stepdad.
Is that true?
Yes.
He had really nice eyes.
He was very handsome.
He liked to work out, so he was really big.
[DARK MUSIC]
I was with him for five years.
There was a lot of signs in the beginning.
Severe jealousy, a lot of control.
He would say, I trust you.
It's the other people I don't trust.
I don't trust other men.
I would hear them arguing.
I heard her screaming and crying.
I had a talk with my mom.
I know what's going on between you two, and I don't like it.
You guys need to stop.
It can't happen anymore.
[BROODING MUSIC]
I walked down, and I saw my mom and the neighbors in the house.
I'm like, what is going on?
I knew Andy was hurt.
I knew my mom was in distress, and she was crying.
You could see blood?
Yeah.
Blood, footprints.
Just blood everywhere.
I was shocked.
I didn't even know what to think.
I just remember wanting to make sure my mom was OK because I
didn't know where she went.
She was just taken.
[SIRENS BLARING]
Please, please.
I need someone, please.
I don't know what to do.
I'm going to freak out.
There was a knife in the sink in the bathroom.
There's only two people in the house,
and we can only talk to one of them.
Where did all the blood come from, Stephanie?
This is Andrew's blood.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Please.
All right, we're going to go check, OK?
I know you're not.
Please tell me he's alive and in the hospital bed.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
I don't know what's going to happen.
Please.
Please tell me if he's OK.
Please.
No, no.
In the predawn hours of May 8, 2014--
This is like a nightmare, a walking nightmare.
--Stephanie Fernandes was desperate to learn
from police what had happened to her fiance, Andrew "Andy"
Wagner.
What happened to him?
I know this is a traumatic night, OK?
No, please tell me Andy's OK.
Oh, please tell me Andy's OK.
Please.
What I'm going to do right now is I'm going to read you--
At around 10:30 the night before,
after a sudden bloody encounter with Andy
at their home in Worcester, Massachusetts, Stephanie says
she couldn't find her cell phone,
so she rushed to a neighbor's house to get help.
[SIRENS BLARING]
It's coming up on the left.
Which house?
Right here.
On the left.
Stephenie's daughter, Angelina Fernandes, now 20,
was just 11 years old that night.
Where was your bedroom?
Upstairs.
But can you still remember?
Yeah.
It's like pictures.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]
So I was sleeping, and I heard the door slam shut.
And it woke me up.
And then I just heard my mom from outside, help me.
Someone help me.
And then I just hear my mom screaming and crying.
When you look from that balcony down
and could see your mother and Andy--
Mm-hmm.
There was blood everywhere, and then I
saw them giving CPR on him.
I just remember my mom--
and then she spotted me upstairs,
and she pointed at me.
And she was like, someone get her.
Someone get my daughter.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Police took Angelina to a relative's house.
Andy was rushed by paramedics to the hospital.
Police took Stephanie to the station,
where she was led into an interrogation room
and interviewed for almost three hours.
No.
Please tell me Andy's OK.
Oh, please tell me he's OK.
I can't even talk.
He's my life.
It doesn't even matter.
I love him so much.
Please.
No, no.
I don't know what to do.
I'm going to freak out.
Sit down for a second.
I don't want to hear nothing.
And if anything bad happened to my family,
no, please don't tell me.
I know I look psycho.
Please.
Stephanie, just for right now, I just
want to get some basic information.
OK.
Detective William Pero led the questioning.
Before we talk about the incident that occurred tonight,
I have to read you your rights.
OK.
You have the right to use a telephone
to contact an attorney.
Do you understand this right, Stephanie?
Right now, we can't talk to Andrew.
I can talk to you.
OK?
Why can't you talk to him?
The officers press on, telling Stephanie
that Wagner is in the hospital.
Stephanie appears to settle down a bit.
Well, something did happen.
You're covered in blood.
No.
Oh, yeah.
You have a lot of blood on you.
I would assume that's Andrew's blood?
Yes, this is Andrew's blood.
Stephanie changes into a white cover-up and two hours
into her interview, finally learns Andy's fate.
Andrew is no longer with us.
[CRYING SHAKILY]
And there's a reason why that happened,
but we don't know that reason yet.
Oh my god.
Stephanie is told Andy is dead.
She begins to reveal details of what happened that night.
What happened was we got into an altercation,
and he was hitting me.
And that's what happened.
And he pulled out a knife and gun.
He started choking me and hitting me and stuff.
An autopsy would later reveal Wagner
had bled to death after being stabbed in the neck.
Can I see him?
Stephanie was later charged with first-degree murder.
I can't believe--
I never, never, never would kill someone,
harm someone in that way on purpose.
Stephanie Fernandes is talking publicly
for the first time about the death of her fiance, Andrew
Wagner.
I will always love him.
But how did it come to this?
Just five years earlier, Stephanie
was smitten with Andrew Wagner.
Blue eyes, really nice smile, nice hair.
Just really handsome and really fun personality.
Very talkative.
And did you feel an attraction to him right away?
Yes, I did.
We had chemistry, a lot.
At the time, Andy worked at the tire shop of a Costco.
He dreamed of working in law enforcement.
In the beginning, Angelina got along with him.
What kind of things did you guys do together?
We used to watch Criminal Minds together.
Did your mom ever tell you, "Angelina, I love Andrew.
I'd like to marry Andrew someday"?
Yes.
She wanted that so bad.
A stable family for me and her, she just she wanted that.
But what Angelina didn't know at the time
was that her mother's life with Andy Wagner
also had a violent side, recalled Stephanie's friend
Danielle Lord.
She constantly had grab marks on her arms.
She had marks inside of her legs like I have never
seen in my life.
[DARK MUSIC]
[SOFT MUSIC]
The little girl is me, and my mom is next to me.
Stephanie Fernandes.
So tender and loving, and she was high energy.
And I was like her little sidekick.
Angelina was just six years old when Andrew Wagner
came into her life.
She remembers good times at the beach, family gatherings,
and vacations.
We would actually go to Cape Cod every summer
to his parents' Cape house, which was fun.
She loved him.
She wanted a house with him.
She wanted to get married to him.
She wanted babies.
In those early times, Angelina says her mom never
said how she met Andy Wagner, never
revealed what she did for a living that kept her away
at night.
She was beautiful.
She just had these piercing eyes, first, that you notice,
and her hair was just beautiful.
Danielle Lord worked with Stephanie
in a Massachusetts nightclub.
We both were very intimidating.
A lot of men would say that we were intimidating,
especially together.
That's attractive to men.
We just became this kind of duo.
What did you do at the nightclub?
I was a topless dancer.
Exotic dancer--
Exotic dancer, stripper, yeah.
And had you been trained in dancing at all?
I took dance classes when I was younger.
Not in that way.
Stephanie was a single mom.
She says after she split up with Angelina's father,
she needed to earn a paycheck.
I would go in there, make a lot of money,
and then I would get out and be there
for my mom and my daughter.
One night, back in 2009, a new guy at the club caught her eye.
I was on stage, and he was there.
We just started talking talked for an hour.
She was instantly attracted to him.
She wanted to be with him.
She didn't look at him like a customer.
She was like, oh, this a cute guy.
I like him.
At first, Stephanie loved the attention.
I thought, oh, he's just into me.
He just really likes me.
I think she just had stars in her eyes.
Danielle says Stephanie and Andy's relationship
quickly became a little obsessive.
A lot of alarms went off whenever Steph met Andy,
alarms that she couldn't hear.
He was completely possessive right from the beginning.
Andy was calling her nonstop, messaging her,
and showing up at the club right from the beginning.
Stephanie and Andy moved in together almost immediately
in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Danielle says their relationship moved from obsessive
to dangerous.
I've never in my life seen bruises like that, ever.
And I don't even want to think of what she went through
to get those bruises.
We were covering it with makeup.
When she had the bruising down there,
there was nothing you could do to cover it.
Soon after moving in together, Stephanie
says Andrew demanded some changes.
Did he demand that you stop dancing?
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
His girl was not going to dance at a club.
And I said, jokingly, nervously, jokingly, well,
who's going to pay my bills?
And why did he want you to quit?
Because of the attention, the men,
taking off my top in front of men.
Stephanie says she stopped dancing,
but the violence continued.
He's hit me in my head and my face.
He's choked me.
Stephanie says she took this photo in 2010.
Body shots all over the place.
My mouth, my eyes, everywhere.
Why didn't you ever call the police
and report this violence?
I was told that bullets can go through paper.
It would mean nothing with a restraining order.
He would get to me way quicker than the cops would,
and I would die if I left him.
I can't explain it.
It's very hard to leave a domestic-violence situation.
You don't have your own money.
You don't have anywhere to go.
You're broken down completely.
Your brain is like scrambled eggs,
and you can't think for yourself.
And you just walk around every day like-- you're in shock.
You just want to end the day, and when
you wake up the next day, it's just another day
doing the same thing.
So I think she was just stuck in a situation
that she didn't know how to get out of.
In spite of their volatile relationship,
in 2012, Stephanie and Andy were engaged.
A short time later, Andy became a corrections officer.
You and Andy had bought a condo together.
You were planning a wedding.
Correct?
Yes.
You seem happy in that picture.
What went wrong?
Severe jealousy.
But Stephanie admits it wasn't just Andy.
Sometimes she antagonized him, teasing and tormenting him
with texts.
They're pretty vicious.
Yeah.
You admit that, right?
I do.
It's embarrassing.
I asked Stephanie to read a few.
I'm going to F your best friend.
You should kill yourself.
Hope a car falls on you.
I admit I'm flawed.
Yeah, I can get upset.
She says Andrew would get upset, too, especially when she
wore outfits that might make her attractive to other men.
He's freaked out over the tank top
that I was wearing, grabbed me, and then threw me on my bed
in the room and tore it off.
Took out his gun, made sure I knew there was bullets in it,
and jammed it down my throat.
Did he threatened to kill you?
Did he threaten to pull the trigger?
During that time, if I didn't listen to him,
yes, that he was going to kill me.
When he was mad, he'd turned into a different person.
His whole face would get red.
His pupils would dilate.
It was like possession of demonic entity.
Angelina recalls seeing Andrew trying to headbutt her mother.
He'd go like-- like that.
Would he bump her?
When he'd headbutt, it would literally make contact?
No.
But it would go right up in her face?
Yeah.
An mm.
Yeah.
And she called that a headbutt, right?
Yeah.
And did that bother her?
Mm-hmm.
By early 2013, Stephanie decided she and Angelina
needed a change.
She left Andrew and began a new relationship
with an old boyfriend, Mike Laramee.
I left Andy to get away from the abuse in a number of things.
Stephanie says both men knew about each other.
What I did with Andy, Mike knew about.
What I did with Mike, Andy knew about.
She says Mike treated her very well.
He spoiled me in every wave.
He would carry me into bed if I fell asleep on the couch.
And just months after they got back together,
Mike proposed, and Stephanie accepted.
Mike brought me to Niagara Falls.
He did take out the ring and asked if I would marry him,
and I did wear the ring.
Both men knew that you were engaged to the other man?
Yes.
About a month later, Laramee says
he broke off the engagement.
Stephanie got back together with Andy,
but she says it was more out of fear than love.
If I didn't go back with Andy, he
would have killed Mike or definitely myself
if I didn't go back with him.
He never would have let me live.
Once Stephanie was back, she says the cycle of abuse
resumed.
Just three days before his death, Andy texted her.
He said, I'm going to effing kill you.
Do you remember him texting that to you?
I remember him texting that, saying that, all the time.
Then, on the night of May 7, 2014, everything exploded.
Angelina was upstairs in bed.
Stephanie says she was in the kitchen preparing dinner
when Andy started an argument about what
she'd been doing that week while he was away at work.
And that's what started the questions.
What have I been doing all week, things like that.
Just escalated.
She says Andy wanted to have sex.
Stephanie didn't.
He was punching me in the head, trying to pin me down,
trying to remove my pants.
Then, she says, he pulled out a gun
and tried to pin her against the couch.
I was in fear of my life.
I was trying to get away.
Stephanie says she grabbed this knife to scare him.
What unfolded would soon end one life and destroy another.
It just was so quick.
He just charged at me, went to headbutt me,
as he always would do.
How were you holding the knife?
Like this.
Show me.
So you have it up, and he's coming at you, right?
Yeah.
And what happens?
That's when I'm like, stay away from me.
Stay away from me, as he's screaming, I'm going to [BLEEP]
kill you.
He's on the other side, and he goes to grab my hand.
And it must've nicked his neck, the 1-and-1/2-
or 2-and-1/2-inch, whatever it was.
You held the knife that cut your fiance's artery,
and he bled to death.
And people would think, well, you murdered him.
My actions led to him dying.
They did.
But I didn't make a decision to take his life.
I did not want that to happen.
But if it wasn't him, that would have been me in the ground.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Hear more from Angelina and learn more
about the case at 48hours.com.
[BROODING MUSIC]
As Stephanie Fernandes' trial finally approached,
her legal team prepared her defense.
Domestic violence or intimate-partner violence
was central to the entire case.
Maura Tansley was one of Fernandes' attorneys.
It set up the nature of the relationship between these two
people and I think raised questions
about what happened that night that Mr. Wagner died.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
The trial had been delayed by procedural arguments, and then
the COVID pandemic.
Stephanie had spent those years in home custody,
wearing an ankle bracelet.
In June of 2022, eight years after Andrew Wagner was killed,
the murder trial of Stephanie Fernandes finally began.
All rise.
Andrew Wagner's family was there--
his mother, Melissa, his father, Tom,
and his sister, Jillian Cristaldi.
They declined our request for an interview.
Surrounded by supporters, they were
hoping that by the end of this trial,
Fernandes would be behind bars.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Terry McLaughlin
said that Stephanie Fernandes stabbed
her fiance, Andrew Wagner, in the neck, cutting an artery
and killing him.
McLaughlin says that Stephanie told
different stories about what exactly happened that night.
She said, quote, "He was waving a gun around, so I stabbed him.
And to a neighbor, she said, quote,
"He hit me, so I hit him."
And McLaughlin said Stephanie had fits of rage
and that she was the aggressor.
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Lead defense attorney Peter Ettenberg told jurors
that Andrew Wagner was, quote, "189 pounds of fury
and frustration who violently came at Stephanie and said,
quote, "I'm going to kill you."
Ettenberg says Stephanie thought she would be killed,
so she acted to protect herself.
We believe that when he grabbed her hands
and went to go and headbutt her, he pulled,
and that pulled the knife into his neck.
But prosecutors presented witnesses
who testified Stephanie has a long history
of violent outbursts.
Assistant DA Julieanne Karcasinas.
How many times did you see Ms. Fernandes strike Mr. Wagner?
Multiple times, ma'am.
This is Daniel DiStefano.
He was a friend of Wagner's and a former police officer.
He says he saw Fernandes hit Andy at a wedding reception
back in 2010.
And can you please tell the court
where Ms. Fernandes hit Mr. Wagner?
She very precisely struck him in the face and the head
with a closed fist.
Do you admit that at times, you have hit men in your life
with a closed fist?
Hit?
Hit them.
No, I hit-- well, yeah, I hit Andy once.
He punched me in the head.
I punched him back.
[TENSE MUSIC]
And Stephanie's former fiance, Mike Laramee, testified.
He told the court that Stephanie pulled a knife on him
at his home.
This is audio of Laramee's testimony.
All of a sudden, I heard a ching of a knife coming out
of the butcher block.
And I came inside, and I hit it out of her hand.
And there was another knife incident.
She went to my dining room table,
and she was going to carve it up.
And I was afraid for my life.
I grabbed the chair, and I wasn't
going to let her come near me with it.
And she stabbed the chair with it three or four times.
After this happened, what, if anything, did you do?
I grabbed all the knives, and I got rid of them.
The things that Mike Laramee said are not true.
You never came after Michael Laramee
with a knife in your hand?
I never did.
You never damaged his furniture with a knife?
No, I did not.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
As Stephanie's defense began, they called an unusual witness.
My name is William Pero.
I'm a Worcester police sergeant.
The detective who interviewed her the night Andrew died.
The defense showed the jury that police video,
a video that prosecutors had decided not to show.
In that interview, Detective Perot
points out Stephanie's bruises.
I look at the bruises on you, OK?
Please tell me he's OK.
And they're not old bruises.
They're fresh.
The fact that there are fresh bruises
on her, that's consistent with how
she described Andrew Wagner grabbing her and coming
towards her.
I don't know what else would be better to lay the foundation
that she was acting in self-defense.
You have bruises on your face, on your arm, on your body.
I can see them, Steph.
Prosecutors show Pero photos taken that night.
He says he sees a bruise on her arm
but not on Stephanie's face.
And do you see any injuries to the defendant's face
in this photograph?
Objection, Judge.
Overruled.
I do not.
And do you see any injuries to the face of the defendant
in this photograph?
I do not.
The prosecutor suggests that during that interview,
he may have been playing Stephanie.
Some of your questions or comments
are designed to get the person you're
interviewing to drop their guard and/or talk to you, correct?
To show empathy and to relate to me?
You want them to start talking, correct?
I do.
[BROODING MUSIC]
Two people thought that night back in 2014,
and only one survived.
The defense decided they had no choice but to put
Stephanie on the stand.
--the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help me God.
Her defense attorneys walked her through the hours
leading up to Andy's death.
We tried being intimate.
That morning?
Yes.
OK.
And did it happen?
No.
She says Andy became angry when she made fun of him.
I made the comment as I got out of the bed,
walking into my bathroom, and he came in there
and smacked me a few times.
Later that evening, with Angelina upstairs in bed,
Stephanie says Andy, with a gun in hand, attacked her.
Hit me in the head with the gun, choked me,
and he wanted [BLEEP] sex.
Somehow, we were on the floor.
And I was crying, and I ended up getting away.
And I ran screaming and away, like, don't come near me.
Don't come near me.
And he was screaming, I'm going to kill you, you [BLEEP]..
When I ran and I kept on saying, don't come near me,
don't come near me, I--
Did he listen to you when you said that,
or did he keep coming near you?
It happened so quick where I ran to the kitchen,
I picked up a knife and held it and said, screaming,
anyways, the whole time, don't come near me.
Don't come near me.
And he ran to me and said, give me the knife, you [BLEEP],,
and put his hand on my throat and grabbed my hand
and went to headbutt me.
And he went, Steph, I think I got stabbed.
I just stood there.
I was in shock.
I think we both were in shock.
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
After Stephanie Fernandes took the stand
and told her version of events--
Good afternoon, Ms. Fernandes.
Good afternoon.
--the prosecutors got their turn to challenge her,
as Assistant DA Julieanne Karcasinas
zeroed in on Stephanie's history with men.
You claim that you were a loyal woman.
Isn't that correct?
Correct.
Now, were you loyal to Andy when you cheated on him with Mike?
Yes or no?
I didn't cheat on him.
Mike was Mike Laramee.
Now, July 26, 2013, you were in Niagara Falls.
Isn't that correct?
Correct.
And you accept a $44,000 engagement
rate from Mr. Laramee while on that trip. isn't that correct?
That is correct.
I put it on my finger, yes.
Do you get engaged to all your guy friends?
No.
[BROODING MUSIC]
On Stephanie's second day on the stand--
You may proceed.
--the prosecutor tried to pick apart
her account of the day Andy died.
Ms. Fernandes, how many times did Andy choke you that day,
on May 7, 2014?
That day?
Yes.
In the morning and at the nighttime of the event.
And then how long did he choke you for that morning?
I'm not sure.
I didn't count.
I'm not sure.
It was quick.
And you had no marks on your neck?
I don't remember.
Stephanie had described a struggle
around the couch in the house that night,
but the assistant DA says the crime scene pictures
don't show any sign of that.
The coffee table is in front of the couch on--
Yes.
--at our house, yes.
Yes.
And it's not pushed out of the way, correct?
I can't tell with that couch and how close the couch coffee
table is, but it does not look crooked.
Correct.
It's not pushed to the side or anything like that.
How was he choking you on the couch?
It all happened so quick.
And Karcasinas tries to cast doubt
on Fernandes' recollection of the night.
So you do not have a memory of certain parts of that evening.
Isn't that correct?
I would say that's correct, the time and stuff like that.
And, finally, Karcasinas questions
Stephanie's credibility, especially
her claims that she had lived her life
in fear of Andy Wagner.
Were you afraid of Andy Wagner when
you told him he was stupid?
Yes.
Were you in fear of Mr. Wagner when you said to him,
I hope a car falls on you?
No.
And were you in fear of Mr. Wagner when you sent him
a photograph of yourself performing
[BLEEP] sex on Michael Laramee?
Yes or no, ma'am.
No.
No further questions, Your Honor.
Thank you.
All right.
Both sides called in domestic violence experts
who interviewed Stephanie.
Good morning, members of the jury.
Carol Ball testified for the defense,
saying that Andrew Wagner's escalating verbal threats
and physical violence left Stephanie
with post-traumatic stress disorder.
My opinion is that she experiences
the symptoms of battered-woman syndrome, also known
as intimate-partner violence.
That cycle repeats itself over and over.
And prosecutors called up their expert, David Adams,
who concluded that Andrew, not Stephanie,
was the victim of abuse.
Well, I actually didn't see any evidence
that she was fearful of him.
I think this case raises some interesting questions
about what it means to be a victim.
Stephanie is not a sympathetic victim, right?
She is a flawed person, and yet she is still a victim
and still has a right to act in self-defense.
It's much easier for us to understand someone
as a victim of domestic violence where they have a perfect past,
where there's no other anger issues or anything else.
But that's not what we have.
The defense believes that this case will ultimately come down
to whether jurors believe Stephanie intentionally
murdered Andrew Wagner.
A medical examiner who testified couldn't say for sure.
He couldn't rule out the fact that this was an accident.
And after 10 days of witnesses, the defense
presented their closing arguments.
She picked up a knife and said, Andy, stay away.
Stay away.
He didn't.
This time, for whatever reason, it was too much.
And the prosecution hasn't proved
that this wasn't an accident, and they have not proved
that it wasn't in self-defense.
What the prosecution hasn't proved
is that Stephanie Fernandes is a murderer.
Prosecutor Terry McLaughlin disagreed.
She's the aggressor.
She's the one with the temper.
She's the one with the mouth.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest to you
that this is first-degree murder.
Premeditated and planned.
She got him from the side, or she got up from the back
from behind.
She grabs a knife, and she stabs him when he's not looking
or he's not ready for it.
With that argument, the case would go to the jurors.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
What do you think of Stephanie's decision to take the stand?
Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter.
[SOFT ROUSING MUSIC]
If convicted of first-degree murders,
Stephanie Fernandes could face life in prison.
But the question is, did you murder him?
No.
It makes me nauseous just to even think of that.
All rise.
After about nine hours of deliberation,
jurors reached their verdict, guilty of a lesser charge--
voluntary manslaughter-- which carries the possibility
of up to 20 years in prison.
Shane Bernard and Gayla Bieksha sat on the jury.
I think that both of them are equally controlling and abusive
to each other.
I agree.
I think they were both in this vicious cycle that just--
they couldn't stop themselves.
He was a more physical abuser, where she
was more psychological abuse.
I do believe she didn't want to kill him, but she did.
As for Fernandes' claims of self-defense,
juror Gayla Bieksha believes Wagner made contact
with the knife when, Stephanie says,
he attempted to headbutt her.
The. headbutt was a huge piece for us.
Right.
We went off the medical examiner's report
saying that the knife went in from the front.
The angle was in from the front and downward
And that she had actually had a stabbing motion.
So that in a sense was what ruled out self-defense.
Before sentencing, Andrew Wagner's family finally
got to speak directly to the woman they believe
murdered their son and brother.
My name is Jillian Cristaldi.
I'm the sister of Andrew.
My parents and I have waited to speak, to have a voice,
to give my brother a voice, and to get him the Justice
that he deserves, to clear his name from the blatant lies that
have been spewed from Stephanie Fernandes and her attorneys'
mouths for over eight years.
When you look at Stephanie Fernandes,
you are looking at a face of evil,
of someone who gives no consideration for her actions,
who is incapable of love, and has shown no remorse or guilt
for killing my brother.
Andrew's mother, Melissa Wagner.
She took away Andrew's joy and love of life.
She took away all of Andrew's family and friends.
She took away Andrew's dreams of a family of his own.
She took away all of Andrew's money.
She took away Andrew's dignity and self-respect.
And when there was nothing, nothing, nothing left
for her to take, she took away Andrew's life.
I beg you, Judge Reardon, and I beg you, I beg you,
I beg you, take away the one thing that matters most to her.
Take away her freedom for as long as possible, please.
Please, please.
Thank you.
I realized that number sentence I impose in this case
can do perfect justice.
Judge James Reardon reminds everyone
that Stephanie Fernandes was found guilty not of murder
but of voluntary manslaughter.
Ms. Fernandes is being sentenced for that conviction,
not for her relationship with Andrew
Wagner or any other individuals or for her past life.
I sent Ms. Stephanie Fernandes to a term
of not more than 10 years and not the less than eight years
in state prison.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
After all this, according to what you have said,
Andrew struck you, choked you, threatened you with a pistol.
Do you still have some sort of emotion
for this man, some sort of love for this man?
I do.
I know it bothers a lot of people.
I will always love him.
Stephanie says the night Andy died could have been avoided.
Maybe the night wouldn't have happened
if I got him help, if I got us counseling,
if I got him therapy.
Angelina, why did this happen?
Because he was abusive, and my mom was his victim.
But his family blames your mother for that.
They're going to believe what they want to believe.
I can't imagine the pain they're going through.
I don't think they want to see their deceased son that way,
so they're trying to blame my mom for all of the wrong he
did towards her.
Angelina is now studying to become a forensic psychologist,
and she hopes to work with victims in court
and with children.
Angelina says she looks forward to the day she'll be
able to reunite with her mom.
When she's out of jail, she'll be
able to see all of my successes, and she'll
be able to see everything that I've accomplished.
I want to accomplish all of my dreams
so my mom can experience the happiness afterwards.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
I'm Erin Moriarty, and this is My Life of Crime.
Listen to My Life of Crime from 48 Hours
wherever you get your podcasts.
Here at the CBS Evening News, we focus on solutions,
finding solutions to help people understand
what are the right choices to make for you and your family.
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