Franklin woman gets six years for scalding husband

• Mauvette Mattadeen will be deported after serving sentence
• 'I will not defend what I did. It was wrong.'
• Lawyer: 'Something happen ed to provoke her.'

SOMERVILLE – A Franklin (Somerset) woman found guilty of pouring hot oil over her husband was sentenced Friday to six years in prison before she is deported to her native Jamaica.

Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Hawkes had asked Mauvette Mattadeen, 43, to receive the maximum sentence for one of the most "heinous depraved cases" he has handled in his 27-year career, but Superior Court Judge Robert Reed sentenced her to less than the 10-year maximum because she had been the victim of domestic abuse.

A jury found Mattadeen guilty of aggravated assault on June 12, but cleared her of attempted murder charges in the April 6, 2012 attack of her husband, Leacroft at their township home.

In a "preplanned attack," Mattadeen sprayed a chemical in her the eyes of her sleeping husband, then when he went into the shower to wash the chemical from his eyes, she poured hot oil on him, causing him to suffer second and third-degree burns over his body, Hawkes said.

"He was defenseless," Hawkes said. "He was left to die."

Reports say that when police responded, they found him on the porch of a neighbor's home and his face appeared to be "melting."

Leacroft Mattadeen has lost sight in one eye and hearing in one ear, Hawkes said, adding that he has undergone multiple surgeries. He has gone through "horrific pain," Hawkes said.

But her lawyer, Joseph Krakora, argued that the attack did not "happen in a vacuum."

Though the jury rejected her self-defense claim, Krakora said she has a "long history" of being a victim of abuse both in Jamaica and by her husband who exercised "abusive control."

Krakora said she acted out in "extreme frustration and desperation."

"Something happened to provoke her," he said, adding it was a "classic case of domestic violence."

Leacroft Mattadeen told Reed on Friday that his wife illegally came to the United States and has "taken advantage of what this country has to offer and she has abused it."

Mauvette Mattadeen told that judge that "I am not the kind of person Mr. Hawkes has made me out to be."

She came to the United States in 2005 and married in 2009. The two met when she was a passenger in his cab in New York City.

"I will not defend what I did," she said. "It was wrong."

She said she tried leaving her husband, "but kept on coming back."

Krakora said that after her husband withdrew the endorsement of her application to receive a green card, she applied for legal immigrant status as a victim of domestic violence.

Reed said he decided not to give the maximum sentence because he had considered "the totality" of the circumstances, including her history of domestic violence by males "who were authority figures in her life."

The judge said that the years of abuse had "created a strong resentment and provocation which came to a tragic result on April 6, 2012."

But, Reed said, "that does not excuse" her actions.

The judge said that he had also received a letter from most members of her church, asking for leniency.

Mauvette Mattadeen will receive credit for the 847 days she has been in jail since her arrest.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com