Art professor gets up to 12 years for attack on colleague

GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A college art professor who pleaded guilty to using a rock, a fire poker and garden shears in a four-hour attack on a colleague that left the victim with permanent injuries has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

Rie Hachiyanagi, 50, a professor at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, was sentenced Wednesday in Franklin Superior Court, five days after pleading guilty to nine charges in connection with the December 2019 attack, including three counts of armed assault with intent to murder a person over 60.

Hachiyanagi went to the victim’s Leverett home and said she needed emotional support because of a breakup, according to prosecutors. When the homeowner let her in, the defendant bludgeoned her and held her for four hours, taunting her, until the victim convinced Hachiyanagi to summon help, prosecutors said.

Judge Francis Flannery said while the attack was “horrific,” the defandant was by all accounts talented, respected by her peers and had no prior criminal record.

Hachiyanagi’s attorney, Thomas Kokonowski, had recommended a five- to seven-year sentence, and said he respected the judge’s decision.