ALFRED — Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said he is recommending a 45-year prison sentence for Jason Twardus for murdering Kelly Gorham, his former fiancée, in 2007.

Twardus was convicted by a jury last year of strangling Gorham, a nursing student, in Maine, and burying her body on land owned by his father in a remote section of northern New Hampshire.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday by Justice G. Arthur Brennan at York County Superior Court.

Stokes, in a sentencing memorandum submitted to the court earlier this week, said Twardus has never shown remorse for the murder.

“On the contrary, he has maintained that he is the victim of a massive frame-up perpetrated against him by others, and in the process of maintaining that defense, smeared Kelly Gorham’s name and reputation,” Stokes wrote.

Twardus’ defense attorney, Daniel Lilley, has suggested John Durfee, Gorham’s landlord, as an alternate suspect in the case, both during the trial and later, in his bid to win his client a new trial. Twardus’ motion for a new trial was denied last month.

In a telephone interview Friday, Stokes said a sentencing analysis first considers the crime itself to determine a recommendation for a base sentence and then at aggravating and mitigating factors.

He said the basic sentence should reflect that Gorham was the victim of domestic violence “literally at the hands of her former fiancé.”

“While it is true there was no history of domestic violence between Kelly Gorham and the defendant, his stalking behavior is simply another method of control,” Stokes wrote. “The fact that an innocent victim, in her own home, is murdered in the middle of the night and then literally vanishes from the face of the earth, places this crime significantly above the minimum.”

Gorham, who was 30 at the time of her death, was reported missing from her Alfred apartment Aug. 8, 2007 after failing to report for work at Maine Medical Center. Intensive searches ensued but it wasn’t until Labor Day weekend that year that her remains were found in Stewartstown, N.H., on land owned by Jason Twardus’ father, Brian Twardus. Police learned the elder Twardus owned property in Stewartstown when they executed a search warrant at the Twardus home in Rochester, N.H.

Stokes said Twardus was willing to let Gorham’s family suffer the pain of not knowing what happened to her.

“Losing a child and a sibling to violence is nightmarish, but the torture the Gorham family was forced to endure for three weeks in August 2007 defies description,” Stokes wrote. “While law enforcement worked feverishly to find Kelly Gorham, the defendant did nothing to help and continued to mislead the police at every opportunity.”

Police learned that Twardus had been in the vicinity of Gorham’s apartment two nights before she disappeared. Gorham lived on an apartment on property owned by John and Nancy Durfee on Route 202 in Alfred. During the trial, Twardus testified that on the night of Aug. 6, 2007, he went fishing in Biddeford Pool and stopped on Kallis Lane across Route 202 from Gorham’s apartment to urinate and smoke marijuana. He said he fished at high tide. Stokes pointed out it was low tide at the time.

Twardus said he’d gone fishing at Rye Beach, N.H. on Aug. 7, the night Gorham was last seen, and testified he’d stayed home in Rochester on Aug. 8 because he was feeling sick. He claimed he wasn’t the man seen on a convenience store video in Colebrook, N.H. ”“ seven miles from Stewartstown, at noon that day.

Daniel Lilley, Twardus’ attorney, said Friday he hadn’t yet read the report and declined comment.

The minimum sentence for a murder conviction in Maine is 25 years and the maximum is life in prison.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.