Boy, 16, Gets Maximum Sentence for Killing Classmate and Baby

LYONS, N.Y. — A 16-year-old boy was given the maximum prison sentence Monday for the stabbing deaths of a schoolmate and the toddler he was baby-sitting.

Wayne County Judge Maurice Strobridge sentenced Chad Campbell to nine years to life for each murder, to be served consecutively. An adult would have faced a maximum of 25 years to life for each conviction.

Campbell’s lawyer said he would appeal.

Campbell was convicted in September of killing Cynthia Lewis, 15, and 17-month-old Curtis Rizzo. Their mutilated bodies were found Aug. 2, 1990, behind the Palymra-Macedon Middle School where Lewis and Campbell had been classmates.

Before the sentencing, Campbell told the judge: “I didn’t do it.”

Campbell did not testify. His lawyer, James Foley, maintained that another teen-ager, who later committed suicide, had killed Lewis and Rizzo.

Foley argued that Campbell and the other youth were involved in a satanic cult, and that the older boy had terrorized Campbell into making false confessions.

Dist. Atty. Richard Healy said the evidence against Campbell was overwhelming and called him “dangerous to the community.”