S. Jersey woman recalls terror at attacker's sentencing

Five years after being attacked in her driveway in Waterford, Renee Basile still struggles to believe that not everyone walking toward her wants to kill her.

Her marriage over, her friendships frayed, and her trust in people worn thin, Basile sat yesterday in a Camden courtroom within feet of the man who shattered her life.

He grabbed Basile and came at her with box cutters one night, by her accounts, and she overwhelmed him in a 1½-minute struggle after no one responded to her screams for help. The attacker, who then ran away, would later admit his intent was to kidnap her.

Christopher Kornberger went on to be a convicted killer, issued a life sentence plus 51 years for murder and other violent attacks this year on top of an 18-year sentence he is already serving for attempted aggravated assault and weapons offenses.

Yesterday, Kornberger got 15 more years.

Basile was the first of five South Jersey women whom Kornberger, 23, attacked in 2003. His pattern of preying on solitary women at random led Burlington County Superior Court Judge Thomas S. Smith Jr. to describe him, at his July 2 sentencing for murder and other attacks, as one of the most dangerous people he had encountered over a career of three decades.

The sentence issued by Superior Court Judge Samuel D. Natal yesterday was in line with a plea deal Kornberger entered into July 14 to attempted kidnapping. As part of the agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of attempted aggravated sexual assault and the unlawful possession of a weapon.

Speaking during and after the sentencing, Basile recalled how her husband, who was inside the house, and her neighbors did not hear her screams for help. Nor was her best friend, with whom she was talking to using an earpiece, able to respond, Basile said.

Kornberger ran away, but remaining was the guilt Basile's husband and friend felt for not being able to help, and her struggle to renew trust in them, she said.

"That made me lose faith in my fellow man," she said, reading from a statement, once breaking into tears.

She and her husband have since divorced. Basile said she was still trying to regain a normal life, to not fear the dark or her driveway, to find a place where she feels safe. She stays away from television - the crime is "too real."

"Everything I do is affected by this traumatic event because I am afraid to let my guard down," said Basile.

There were echoes in her statement to words spoken by Nancy "Kim" Clark, who survived a stabbing attack by Kornberger, at his July sentencing in Burlington County. Clark that day recounted her own struggles with trusting people and her newfound vigilance.

Kornberger pleaded guilty just before his March trial to attempting to murder Clark, and was subsequently convicted of raping and killing Krista DiFrancesco and attempting to kidnap Elisabeth Loetzner-Jung.

Kornberger had no statement to make at the July sentencing, and when asked by the judge yesterday whether he wanted to speak, the Evesham man said he did not think it was a good time.

The judge pressed him again.

"Based on what I've heard and what I've read," Kornberger replied, "I don't think I can provide the closure this woman needs."

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