"Not a pretty sight:" Have you ever been at a sentencing hearing? It's very dramatic, not like watching television. You realize that this convicted felon will have to suffer a life different from yours or mine. Apart from who she is and what she has been convicted of, it's still a gut wrenching sight. For me, at anyrate. There was a lot of LA detective/prosecution glad-handing. It's finally over. But I found the scene sad. Ultimately, the felon's life-long habit of grifting, using, abusing and then murdering has left her with nothing. Worse than nothing.
Her son, Kenneth Kimes, who all and sundry call Kenney, has been given a sentence of (I believe) 127 years for the murder of Irene Silverman in New York City. He was charged with a capital offense here in Los Angeles, together with his mother (120 years for same murder). He plea bargained to get the death penalty removed for them both, plus the request to do his "time" in California in exchange for revealing all about the Kazdin murder. He threw in the Bahamian banker confession to boot. So, while Sante is going back to New York (Bedford Hills?), he has been granted his wish of staying in California, thus avoiding the years of solitary he was penalized with for the Maria Zone hostage-taking. He'll probably be in San Quentin.
Even Judge Kennedy-Powell, while sentencing Kenney, said that he is the real tragedy of this entire trial: a child who his mother isolated from public school and friends, to raise in the privacy of her dementia. Mamma told him to kill and kill he did. She made him into a stone-cold killer who, nevertheless (as said by the judge) came up to plate to testify against Mamma. "I don't know where he got his strength from."
So, "not a pretty sight" may now be seen in context. It was a tragedy (all around) of major proportions.