BOSTON — The state’s highest court upheld on Monday the 2007 conviction of a Greenfield man serving two consecutive life sentences in prison for the strangulation death of Brandy Waryasz and her unborn son in April 2005.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the decision a jury made following the 12-day trial of Dennis M. Bateman, who was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder as well as one count of armed robbery for stealing the cash register from the Sunoco station on Routes 5 and 10 in Deerfield after he killed Waryasz, a 21-year-old gas station employee.

Attorney Amy Codagnone argued on Bateman’s behalf. In her appeal of the murder convictions, she claimed the trial was “infected by errors” as a result of numerous decisions by Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini. According to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, Codagnone objected to Agostini’s denial of a motion for a change of trial venue. She also cited a confession Bateman allegedly made to a fellow inmate, who Codagnone argued was working as a government agent.

“We disagree in all respects,” the 60-page Supreme Judicial Court decision reads. “Having reviewed the entire record ... we discern no basis to set aside or reduce the verdicts of murder in the first degree or to order a new trial.”

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Townsend, chief of the DA’s office appeals unit, argued on behalf of the state before the SJC in December 2022.

“We’re pleased they accepted our arguments,” he said in a statement Monday. “It was a long road to get to this point, but we made it.”

In his victim-impact statement in May 2007, Waryasz’s brother, Brian Cousineau, told the court his sister and her unborn child were killed on his birthday. He said he had planned to bring his sister a plate from the barbecue he was having and wondered if Waryasz would have remained alive if he had decided to do so sooner. The day of Waryasz’s murder also was the day before her mother’s birthday. Ruth Cousineau died in April 2019 — 14 years to the month after her daughter was killed. Her obituary mentions she was predeceased by her daughter and grandson, who was posthumously named Dane Anthony Hall. Waryasz was seven months pregnant when she died.

Reached by email on Monday, Bethany Waryasz, Brandy’s sister, said the conviction’s upholding means justice will continue to be served for Brandy and Dane.

“They meant and still mean the world to us. Time cannot change that,” she said. “My sister didn’t get to see her nieces be born, she didn’t get to meet the most amazing sister-in-law in the world. My nephew didn’t get to experience kindergarten. He would be graduating, possibly with a partner he is excited to start his adult life with. You can’t put a measurement to the pain that hits when you see places that you’ve been together, as you reach milestones that were once dreamed of doing together. No amount of time takes away that pain.”

Prosecutors said Bateman, a career thief who they said struggled with addiction, went to the Sunoco station on April 16, 2005, to try to persuade Waryasz, whom he knew from social gatherings, to participate in a staged robbery so he could get money to buy drugs. When Waryasz refused, prosecutors said, Bateman dragged her into the garage, wrapped a nylon strap around her neck and strangled her to death. He then ran off with the gas station’s cash register.

According to testimony in the case, Bateman was seen at the gas station by multiple witnesses shortly before the murder. His DNA was also found in large amounts on the murder weapon and under Waryasz’s fingernails from where she had apparently tried to fend off her attacker.

Bateman maintained his innocence throughout the murder trial and cited racial discrimination and prejudice as reasons for his arrest days after the murder. He admitted to being at the gas station on April 16, 2005, but claims he was there earlier in the day. He had previously been convicted of other offenses, including breaking and entering, larceny and escape from a work-release program. At the time of his murder conviction, his wife, Suzanne Bateman, said she did not believe he committed the crimes.

“He’s still innocent and I will maintain that until the day I die,” she was quoted as saying.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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