BURLINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a Vermont man to 27 years in prison Wednesday for his role in an overseas murder-for-hire plot in which a man was tortured on video and for producing child sex abuse images.
Prosecutors wanted Sean Fiore locked up for the rest of his life. But during a hearing in federal court in Burlington, attorneys for Sean Fiore asked Judge Christina Reiss to sentence their client to 25 years in prison.
Over the course of two days, the prosecution described Fiore’s sadistic sexual abuse of children and adults, which they said he had scripted out in graphic detail. He also paid another person to video those acts and to email the recording to him, they said.
Fiore also possessed videos depicting the fatal crushing of puppies and other small dogs, as well as hamsters and rabbits, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Masterson, a prosecutor in the case, told the judge on Wednesday.
“This is a very dark place. We don’t want to believe it is real,” Masterson told the judge. “He brought us there.”
Reiss, in handing down the sentence, remarked how Fiore took sexual pleasure in seeing others held captive, humiliated and degraded, and that he referred to them as slaves.
She called his actions “absolutely unacceptable,” adding, “We don’t have people capture people for slaves.”
Reiss also talked about the child sex abuse images that had been seized in the case. “It is probably the worst, and that’s saying something,” the judge said.
In determining the sentence, Reiss said she considered the abuse Fiore suffered as a child as well as his medical conditions, including his respiratory problems.
With credit for good time, Fiore will need to serve at least 85% of his prison term, potentially shaving off about four years of his sentence. As a result, Fiore could be eligible for release around the time he turns 61 years old.
Reiss also ordered that Fiore be on lifetime supervised release once he is freed from prison and to pay $3,000 each to nine of his victims.
Fiore pleaded guilty in October to a charge of conspiracy to kidnap and murder a person overseas, which carries a possible life sentence. He entered guilty pleas to other charges, including murder for hire, conspiracy to produce child pornography and possession of child pornography.
According to court records, Fiore was living in South Burlington in September 2018 when he communicated over WhatsApp with a woman in Venezuela, with both of them using aliases.
In online chats with the woman, Fiore wrote about wanting to buy videos showing the torture of a kidnapped child, whom he referred to as a slave, according to court filings.
Fiore eventually paid the woman $600 in Amazon gift cards, court records stated, providing her with his detailed instructions on the abuse he wanted to see her inflict on the child.
In October 2018, court filings stated, he received a link to a video showing the sadistic abuse of a young boy as scripted in his chats with the woman.
A few months later in December 2018, according to court documents, Fiore agreed to pay the same woman $4,000 for another video and in April 2019 received a link to a 58-minute video of the sadistic abuse and possible death of an adult male.
Authorities raided Fiore’s home in May 2019, court filings stated, finding videos and other images depicting the sadistic sexual abuse of children.
Prosecutors say the woman in Venezuela — identified in an indictment as Moraima Escarlet Vásquez Flores — has since been arrested in Colombia. Authorities are seeking her extradition to the United States.
Maryanne Kampmann, an attorney representing Fiore, told the judge on Wednesday that her client, who was married and working as a nurse, lived a “remarkably pro-social life,” adding that people who knew him saw him as a “kind, respectful” man.
“He’s someone whose career was focused on helping people,” Kampmann said, “the opposite of inflicting pain.”
Kampmann said the news of Fiore’s arrest “shocked” those who knew him.
“He does want to change,” the defense attorney told the judge of her client, adding that Fiore wanted to take part in treatment and rehabilitate himself. “He does not want to be who is.”
She asked the judge to give him the “hope” that someday he will be freed from jail.
Fiore, in addressing the judge, called his actions “deplorable,” and said he was “ashamed” that he contributed to the suffering of others. He said he cringes when he reviews his online chats.
“I had a one-track mind,” he said. “I wanted only what I wanted.”
He apologized to the victims, his family and his friends for his crimes. “I am so sorry for all the harm I have caused,” Fiore said.
Masterson, who spoke after Fiore, told the judge that the defendant was asking for the mercy he never showed to any of his victims. The prosecutor also dismissed the notion that Fiore was leading a double life.
“Sexual sadism defines who Mr. Fiore is, it wasn’t in a silo,” she said. “It is who he is.”
In asking for the life sentence, Masterson said the chances were too high that if Fiore were released he would harm or kill others, calling him a risk to people in the United States as well as those around the world.
“He is not fixable. He is not curable,” she said.
At the time of his arrest, Fiore was plotting to have two other people tortured, killed and videoed for his sexual pleasure, Masterson said.
She said the prosecution was not able to prove that man depicted in what was referred to as the “murder video” was actually killed.
Reiss, the judge, asked if that should be a consideration in determining a prison term.
Masterson responded negatively because Fiore’s intent was for the man to die.
“Mr. Fiore was 100% clear he wanted the death of that victim,” the prosecutor said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge sentences Vermont man to 27 years in murder-for-hire case.