What did Ashley Sarazens family read in the courtroom during travis collins sentencing
Executive summary
Ashley Sarazen’s family used the sentencing hearing for Travis Collins to read forceful victim-impact remarks that confronted Collins as “the monster” who killed her and to insist he spend the rest of his life in prison; the family quoted Ashley directly as “my baby sister and my best friend. My person in this life,” and told Collins he would have every day to think about what he did [1]. Courtroom reporting does not publish the full text of the family’s written statement, but multiple news accounts record those key lines and the family’s vanquishing of Collins with blunt, condemnatory language [1].
1. What the family said in court — the lines that were reported
At sentencing the family framed their comments as a confrontation with the man they said killed Ashley, telling Travis Collins he would “have every day for the rest of his life to sit in prison and think about the night he beat Ashley Sarazen until she was unrecognizable,” language published by PennLive that captures the tenor of the victim-impact statement read in court [1]. That same report records a visceral familial portrait: Shannon Distilo, Sarazen’s sister, called Ashley “‘That thing’ was Ashley. My baby sister and my best friend. My person in this life,” words offered to rebut Collins’ attempts to demean the victim and to humanize Ashley for the judge and gallery [1].
2. Tone and focus — confrontation, condemnation and a demand for perpetual punishment
Reporting emphasizes that the family’s reading was not merely descriptive grief but moral indictment; they repeatedly called Collins a “monster” and expressed the family’s desire that he spend the remainder of his life in prison reflecting on the severity of the beating [1]. The judge’s reaction — labeling Collins’ actions as “demonic” and describing the injuries as among the worst he had seen in 40 years on the bench — amplified the family’s message in public record [1]. Those contemporaneous accounts show the courtroom exchange as both cathartic for the family and explicitly punitive in tone [1].
3. The family’s reading in context of trial claims and evidence
The family’s statements were made against a backdrop of evidence and competing narratives reported during investigation and trial: prosecutors presented crime-scene photos and testimony describing severe injuries and items suggesting sexual contact [2], while Collins’ earlier police account claimed self-defense after an altercation in which he said Sarazen struck him with a phone [3]. Prosecutors later added rape charges based on forensic findings, further undercutting Collins’ police narrative and providing prosecutors’ framing that informed the family’s remarks [4]. Court reporting shows the family’s courtroom reading was therefore both personal testimony and a response to the defenses and allegations aired during the case [4] [2] [3].
4. Limits of current reporting and alternative perspectives
News coverage provides verbatim extracts of the family’s impact statement but does not publish the complete text read in court, so any reconstruction beyond the reported quotes would exceed available sourcing; the public record therefore captures the family’s core lines — the humanizing description of Ashley, the demonizing of Collins, and the call for lifelong incarceration — without reproducing the entire statement [1]. Alternative perspectives exist in the record: Collins’ initial account to police framed the killing as a violent escalation of a confrontation that he described as defensive [3], and defense-related remarks and family members of Collins later created tense courtroom exchanges after verdicts [5]. Those elements clarify that the family’s reading operated within a contested courtroom narrative, even as the reporting shows their words carried significant moral force [5] [3].