“You knew she wanted to die and you intentionally helped her kill herself. She wasn’t terminal. She was depressed. She needed help to live, not to die,” said Jody Brissette as she faced the man who aided in her daughter’s suicide.

Brissette told Benjamin Bundy that her daughter, Jennifer Azzara, believed him when he said he loved her “to the moon and back.” But in the end, his words were meaningless, Brissette read Wednesday from her victim impact statement.

On Jan. 18, Bundy drove Azzara to Lawrence, Mass., to pawn a television and gaming system for heroin. The couple returned that afternoon to Azzara’s Concord apartment, where she shot up three bags of the drug and died, prosecutors said at Bundy’s plea and sentencing hearing.

A state medical examiner determined Azzara, 31, died of acute heroin intoxication.

Azzara had told Bundy she was pregnant with his child, her mother said. She leaves behind an 8-year-old son who previously lost his father.

Azzara overdosed just over a year after Bundy knowingly sold heroin laced with fentanyl to 28-year-old Mathieu Nichols, who died Dec. 26, 2014. Nichols, who was an only child, had just returned home to Concord after celebrating Christmas with his family, his parents said.

Bundy, 30, of Chichester will spend 15 years to life in prison for his role in the deaths of his one-time girlfriend and a friend.

He pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to one count each of causing or aiding in a suicide, dispensing a controlled drug that resulted in a death and sale of heroin, all felonies. He faces a consecutive but suspended 3½- to seven-year sentence for dealing.

Merrimack County Attorney Scott Murray, who prosecuted Bundy, called the case a first of its kind for the county. He recommended a life sentence – with a minimum of 15 years served before Bundy is eligible for parole – to send a firm message to drug dealers statewide.

“The imposition of the sentence is extremely important given the current crisis we’re experiencing with drugs,” Murray said.

Murray also spoke about the drug supply line that he said runs from Lawrence, Mass., north to Concord. He said the capital city is at the end of the line and, as a result, local law enforcement are playing defense.

“It’s tragically apparent from this case that all you have to do is jump in your car in Concord, drive down Interstate 93 to Lawrence and buy the drugs that you could bring back to kill you. It’s virtually an open market,” he said.

Nichols’s father, Edward Nichols Jr., said no amount of prison time for Bundy is enough to compensate for the loss of his only son. He said Bundy showed no remorse for his actions, because even after Mathieu Nichols died, Bundy continued to deal.

Instead of celebrating her son’s 30th birthday, Carolyn Trombly, said she was writing her victim impact statement. She described her son as an affectionate, kind, supportive and gentle man who had an inherent talent for composing music.

But Mathieu Nichols’s life wasn’t free from pain, she said. He was diagnosed with a mental illness his sophomore year in college and struggled for several years after that. She said she and his father tried to protect him, but in the end, “a drug dealer won.”

“Mathieu did not know the drugs he purchased would kill him,” Trombly said.

She said she believed her son was happy on his final day, and that he never wanted to die.

Jody Brissette believed her daughter was on the mend, too, and that she just needed a strong support system to succeed. She said Azzara was working hard to get her life back on track, had been seeing a counselor and loved her new job.

“A couple of months before Jenny passed, she told me, ‘I’m trying so hard to get clean and stay clean,’ ” Brissette said. “There were so many choices Ben could have made.”

But rather than reach out to Azzara’s family, Bundy helped her get heroin and end her life, Brissette said.

“I keep thinking of the heartache and the stories these children will have to tell,” Brissette said while holding up a picture of her daughter and grandson. “How many more lives have you affected, Ben?”

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