CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Before sending her to prison for lying to police about her stepfather’s murder, Judge Robert Lynn paid Melanie Cooper a compliment.

“My heart goes out to your family,” he said Friday in Merrimack County Superior Court. “It is very clear to me that you have done some tremendous things with your life since this tragedy.”

Cooper, 36, endured a childhood of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Danny Paquette, who was murdered in 1985. As an adult, she overcame those troubles to build a stable life rooted in her husband and five children, business and the Mormon church in Evanston, Wyo.

Before pleading guilty last week to hindering arrest, Cooper, formerly of Hooksett and Hopkinton, had no criminal record. Investigators agree Cooper’s extensive cooperation beginning in 2004 led them to an arrest in the 20-year-old cold case, causing the attorney general’s office to recommend she spend no time in prison for her conviction.

Still, it was not enough. Lynn rejected Cooper’s plea deal and sentenced her to three to six years in the Goffstown women’s prison, saying he had serious doubts that she didn’t play a bigger role in persuading Eric Windhurst to shoot Paquette in Hooksett 21 years ago.

Cooper admitted lying to investigators when questioned about the murder at age 15 in 1985, then again on a police survey in 1992. Lynn questioned Cooper sharply about her claim that she didn’t take seriously Windhurst’s offer to murder Paquette – even as they walked together toward Paquette’s Hooksett farm, Windhurst with a rifle in his hand.

“For me to accept the view that you ask me to accept is just too much,” Lynn said.

Because she pleaded guilty, Cooper cannot appeal. However she can request a sentence review before a panel of three superior court judges, who can reduce, increase or uphold Lynn’s sentence. Had she been prosecuted and convicted as a minor, Cooper would have been sentenced to a youth facility, her records sealed.

“A three-to-six-year sentence under these circumstances for this particular defendant is … pretty significant,” said Chuck Temple, director of the criminal practice clinic at Franklin Pierce Law Center.

“From a defense perspective, that had to be about as difficult (a) situation as you can envision in the courtroom. You have a client who obviously was involved in a very tragic incident, but it seems like in the intervening 20 years she’s lived a law-abiding life,” he said.

Paul McDonough, Cooper’s lawyer, said Monday he is considering all options for her.

“Whatever Dan Paquette had done, it was always Melanie’s position that he didn’t deserve to be killed,” he said. “I hope that the hearing Friday brings closure and healing to the Paquette family, but … the suffering for the Cooper family and for Melanie continues.”

Denise Paquette took her daughters to Alaska after her turbulent marriage to Danny ended in 1981. It was fear of being found by Danny Paquette after returning to New Hampshire that drove Cooper to confide in Windhurst.

“It’s clear that there were a lot of victims of the abuse that Danny Paquette perpetrated against both Melanie Cooper and her mother,” said Grace Mattern, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “He’s created pain across multiple families.”

Authorities say they made no promises to Cooper during the year-and-a-half she helped them tighten their net around Windhurst, 38, who is serving a 15- to 36-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in August.

“She performed these tasks for us knowing full well that there was no promises, rewards, offers of immunity or anything like that,” said Lt. Mark Mudgett, commander of the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit, who testified for Cooper at the sentencing hearing.

“Melanie was a tool, and in order for a tool to be effective you’ve to have a good working relationship.”

In court, Mudgett and senior assistant attorney general Jeff Strelzin told Lynn they believed a suspended sentence was a fair deal. Monday, both agreed Cooper’s prison sentence is appropriate.

“An individual’s life was taken in this case and she played a role in this happening,” Mudgett said. “I think justice is served.”

Paquette family members who testified about the anguish caused by Danny’s unsolved murder asked Lynn to give Cooper the maximum seven-year sentence.

“I am told that without you the murder never would have been solved. The truth is, without you, there never would have been a murder,” said Nadine Larrabee, Danny’s sister. “You were the Judas.” Their mother, Rena Paquette, also died under mysterious circumstances.

“It’s hard to imagine what this case would have been like without the 20 years of fear and anxiety and apprehension for the Paquette family,” Strelzin said. “Their fears were real.”

AP-ES-12-04-06 1727EST