Arlene Allen pounded her fist on a podium time and again in a Napa courtroom Thursday morning, echoing the stabbing motion that she said took the life of her daughter, Adriane Insogna, in 2004.

Allen’s dramatic presentation in Napa County Superior Court was part of a lengthy hearing in which Eric Copple, who has pleaded guilty to killing Insogna and her roommate, Leslie Ann Mazzara, in their west Napa home on Nov. 1, 2004, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Thursday’s event was much more than just a routine sentencing. It was the first time the victims’ family and friends were able to express their emotions to Copple, the 28-year-old Napa man who stole their future, hopes and memories of their loved ones. Emotions ran high for both the victims’ family and those who have stood by Copple since he turned himself into authorities in September 2005.

On Thursday, Allen was the last to speak to the man who robbed her of her life with her daughter.

“Eric you knew Adriane, and Eric I know you. I know that you are a man who brutally and callously took the life of wonderful woman you never met (Mazzara.) Your are the one who violently stabbed to death the best friend of the women you loved. You cannot love Lily (Copple’s wife) and murder her best friend. You cannot love Lily and bring a knife into Adriane’s home and stab her, again, and again, and again and again, and again and yet again,” Allen said, confronting Copple as she slammed her fist on the podium each time she thundered “again.” My baby never wore a turtleneck sweater in her life, and yet she had to be buried in one — and still — it could not hide the extent of her wounds.”

Thursday’s sentencing packed the largest of the Napa County courtrooms to capacity.

The victims’ family occupied the left side of the gallery, while Copple’s supporters and loved ones filled the opposite side. Copple was lead into the courtroom by two bailiffs after being patted down at the doorway.

Dressed in a pin-stripped suit, black tie and white shirt, Copple, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a mustache, goatee and closed shaved head, fidgeted with the buttons on his dress coat as he was escorted to his seat.

Copple is married to Insogna’s close friend Lily Prudhomme Copple, who worked with Insogna at Napa Sanitation District when Insogna was murdered.

In court for nearly four-hours this morning, Copple cried as family members of both women had a chance to address the court and the confessed killer.

Citing depression as a something that’s plagued his life since his youth, Copple spoke of his broken home and problems with alcohol and other substances. When he apologized, he turned his chair to the victim’s families, but could not raise his head and look them in the eye.

He told the court on the day (Sept. 27, 2005,) he turned himself into authorities, “I was going to end my life. But I didn’t want to take the answers (of the murders) to my grave,” Copple said. “When I talked to the police, I told the truth, as God as my witness.”

A motive for the brutal slayings of Insogna and Mazzara has never been revealed to the public. Copple has told investigators he does not remember some of the events of that night and does not know why he killed the two women.

Lily Copple, wife of Eric Copple also made a statement, fully supporting her husband and thanking the victim’s families for having mercy by choosing to not seek the death penalty.