Dustin Duren, sentenced to 45 years Thursday for blowing off his girlfriend’s head, apparently is quite satisfied with his fate.
Duren, 38, sat amicably chatting with his lawyer, smiling at times, as he learned where he’ll be for at least the next three decades – in prison.
He will be eligible for parole by the time he turns 66.
Not a bad deal for a sniveling, arrogant coward who fired a bullet into the head of the mother of their two girls, instantly killing her in front of one of them on February 29, 2024.
The girls were ages four and one when their father, mad that Caitlyn Naffziger wouldn’t leave his Berlin, N.H. apartment, grabbed a revolver from a nearby desk and shot her from three feet away.
The bullet entered Naffziger’s left temple, blood pouring onto her chest, as the 4-year-old, who had been sitting on the couch with her mother, watched.
Duren scooped up the two girls, 4-year-old Elowyn Duren and 1-year-old Vaelyn Duren, put them in his car, and drove off with a loaded gun, never calling police.
He was pulled over by cops 15 hours later in an Applebee’s parking lot in Keene, N.H., where he said he had gone to have “brunch” with his daughters.
Duren was convicted in October by a Coos County Superior Court jury of second-degree murder, reckless conduct with a deadly weapon and child endangerment.
During his trial, Duren claimed that Naffziger was demanding money that he did not have and that she threatened to report him for kidnapping if he did not pay.
He testified with a straight face that he was protecting his children from their mother when he pulled the trigger.
Duren claimed he was acting in self-defense because Naffziger was trying to kidnap the girls.
He also stated that he’s a Marine veteran suffering from PTSD from seeing a fellow soldier commit suicide.
Duren argued he should receive a reduced sentence due to his condition.
But Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand flipped that laughable claim on its head during Thursday’s sentencing overseen by Superior Court Justice Jonathan Frizzel.
Durand said that if the killer really has PTSD he will understand what his two daughters will be suffering from for the rest of their lives after being present for the execution of their mother.
Durand called the young mother’s murder “an unwarranted execution” stemming not from self-defense but from “anger and lack of control.”
The killer admitted during the trial that he never made an effort to try to perform life-saving procedures on Naffziger after he shot her.
He said it would have been a waste of time because “I could see she was dead.”
