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   JERSEY CITY — “I can’t believe it,” Esther Agapet sadly uttered after hearing that the admitted killer of her daughter, Teris Casco, may only get 18 years in prison. Agapet who lives in Westminster, California, could only express her feeling of helplessness. “The prosecutor said he would call me to let me know what’s happening to the case,” Agapet said. “I don’t understand why he’s getting only so little time.”

    Her son-in-law, 29-year-old Eddy A. Casco pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter last Tuesday inside Hudson County Criminal Court in Jersey City. The Army veteran admitted to killing his 33-year-old wife on the early morning of January 20, 2007 after a heated argument over her trip to Hawaii and his extramarital affair. The petite mother of two young boys suffered 20 rib fractures, a broken nose and brain damage according to Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Dill.

    In the courtroom, Casco reportedly also admitted that he hit his wife at least three times in the face and stomped on her several times after she fell in the bathtub.According to reports, Casco described in detail how he picked her up and carried her to the bed where he elbowed her in the face at least three times. Casco said he heard her nose break.

    “We don’t understand why the prosecutor agreed to that,” Teris’ former co-worker and friend, Gigi Bieluch, said. “We were hoping that he at least spend the rest of his life in jail.”Bieluch said some friends have known about how Casco had abused Teris in the past. But her friend always downplayed the incidents.

    And on that one wintry night, the assault turned deadly. The Nicaraguan native, who was initially charged with first-degree murder and held at one million dollars cash-only bail, became enraged after his wife said she was going to Hawaii for two weeks. Casco believed she was going to have an affair.

    Casco, according to Dill, thought that their marriage was in good terms especially after he broke off an affair he had about a month before the killing. The couple’s two young sons reportedly slept at their grandparents house because the couple had a date night. They had dinner and went to a local Jersey City bar to celebrate Teris’ birthday.

    The children returned home the next morning, according to reports, and one the boys saw his blood-soaked mother in bed and asked what was wrong. Casco told his son she was sick. The investigators said Casco only called 911 then, at 11 a.m. - hours after the assault. Teris died at the Jersey City Medical Center, hours after doctors tried to save her.

    “If he only called for help right away,” Bieluch said, “she might have made it.” Last year, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio told reporters that when police arrived at the Sip Avenue apartment, they found blood-stained sheets on the bed and bloody clothes on the bedroom floor as well as in a kitchen garbage can.

    “I don’t know what was going on in his mind at the time of the beating, but it was a brutal, homicidal assault,” said DeFazio. “It appears to be a domestic violence incident that went to the extreme.” “The way he killed her,” Bieluch said, “that should be enough to send him away for life.”

    Sentencing for Casco is scheduled on April 8. If the judge gives him the maximum of 18 years under the plea deal, Casco will have to serve more than 15 years. Meanwhile, the two young boys are being cared for by their dad’s brother in Jersey City.

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