Effingham County Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed sentenced Kimberly Moretz to 10 years in jail and five years probation on Wednesday for hiding the death and dismemberment of a Wilmington Island man.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Deal argued the jury didn’t buy the defense argument that Moretz was a victim.
He said the victim, Charlie Ray, would not have met Chad Moretz, the man who killed him, if not for Kimberly Moretz’ intervention.
“This woman who claimed to be this young man’s friend continued to bring him into contact with the man who murdered him,” Deal said.
Defense Attorney Michael Schiavone said Kimberly Moretz should receive the same sentence her brother, Kevin Lambert, did in the case — five years probation.
He said the government failed to keep Kimberly Moretz safe from her violent and mentally ill husband.
“Chad Moretz is responsible for what happened to Charlie Ray, not this poor lady,” Schiavone said. “Of course she’s not telling the truth about what happened. How many abused women do?”
Kimberly Moretz had faced a maximum of 15 years in jail.
Ray’s parents were not in court during sentencing Wednesday morning.
After deliberating three hours Friday, a jury found Moretz guilty of concealing the death of another and hindering apprehension or punishment of a criminal. She was found not guilty of tampering with evidence.
Deal said last week that Kimberly Moretz is an accomplished liar.
Authorities believe her husband, Chad Moretz, stabbed Ray to death and dismembered his body. Chad Moretz was shot and killed by a SWAT team after an armed standoff at the Moretz house in the Rincon area on Jan. 11, 2013.
Ray’s dismembered body was found at the Moretz house and in a storage unit in Hardeeville, S.C.
Kimberly Moretz, 43, said she was in an adjoining room and heard her husband stab Ray to death and cut up his body with an electric saw.
“When Kimberly Moretz lied to protect her husband during all these domestic incidents, that’s one thing,” Deal said during closing arguments last week. “When she lies and protects her husband after he’s murdered and dismembered a man in her presence, that’s inexcusable. That’s a crime.”
Schiavone presented an expert witness, a sociologist who testified that Kimberly Moretz suffers from severe battered person syndrome and severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
The prosecution said Kimberly Moretz used her maiden name and paid cash to rent the storage unit in South Carolina where most of Ray’s dismembered body was found.
She went to her job at a law office in Savannah for three days after Ray was killed, proving she had ample time to contact authorities about the death, the prosecution contended.