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Partly Cloudy Verdict in: Pierotti gets life
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If the families of murder victims Willis Frost and Gerard Kennedy, Jr. were looking for remorse, they found none in John Pierotti's final statement before sentencing on Thursday, August 31.
Medicated and on crutches, John Pierotti walked into Judge Daniel Cotter's Nassau County courtroom still maintaining his innocence and blaming his victims, now almost two years dead.
"I was defending myself," he told the judge. "As far as I'm concerned, I would have been killed."
Judge Cotter, sighting a "total lack of remorse," gave Mr. Pierotti two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, and then tacked on 22 years for weapons possession.
Mr. Pierotti, who remained expressionless while the judge described his actions as "callous" and "vicious," leaned toward his attorney, Mark Goidell, and said, "I didn't hear half of that."
"He wasn't a man -He wasn't a man," said a relative of Willis Frost, who had hoped for an eleventh-hour confession.
"I just want to know why he did it," said Mr. Kennedy's mother Carol. "I can't believe the hurt that my sons and I go through everyday."
Still, the relatives were overwhelmingly in favor of the sentence. "I'm elated," said Mr. Frost's sister Carole Parker. "It's finally over and it's the best possible outcome."
"Baldwin will be a lot safer place," her brother Jack Frost agreed. "I'm glad they gave him the maximum sentence allowed."
Both families had asked District Attorney Denis Dillon to seek the death penalty but were denied.
Forgiveness remains out of reach. "That man, as far as I'm concerned, does not deserve to live; does not deserve to breathe because my son's not breathing," Ms. Kennedy said. "I know I should be forgiving but I just can't."
Mr. Kennedy, 36, and Mr. Frost, 41, both of Baldwin, were found dead outside the Dragger Inn Tavern on Wednesday, December 23, 1998. They had been shot at point-blank range. By February of 1999, Mr. Pierotti had been arrested for the crime and in June of this year he was convicted by a jury of his peers after just 5 1/2 hours of deliberations. Mr. Pierotti plans to appeal.
The most damning testimony in the trial came from Mr. Pierotti's ex-girlfriend, Melissa Ferris, with whom he shares three children. According to Assistant District Attorney Michael Walsh, she told the jurors that just hours before the murders her boyfriend had demanded she give him the gun they kept in the house. And, the assistant D.A. said, when Mr. Pierotti returned home around 2 P.M., he told her that he had been in a fight and "just killed two people."
During the sentencing, Mr. Goidell tried to have the conviction thrown out because Ms. Ferris had attended meetings between the attorney and his client before the trial. They believe that these meetings made the prosecution privy to information it should not have had. The judge through out the motion calling it "conjection and innuendo."
Before the sentencing, Mr. Goidell asked the judge to think of Mr. Pierotti's three children and be lenient.
"I feel bad for your children," Judge Cotter said. And then proceeded to berate Mr. Pierotti for the home environment he and Ms. Ferris provided their children. "[It is a] horrible environment to grow up in."
The judge reminded the convicted murderer that while his victims died almost instantly, the suffering of their children and loved ones "goes on and on."
In a letter to the judge asking him for the strongest sentence possible, the Frost family said that while Mr. Pierotti's children could visit him in prison, his victim's children had to visit a grave. Mr. Frost's children are 8 and 11. Mr. Kennedy's son is 17.
Medicated and on crutches, John Pierotti walked into Judge Daniel Cotter's Nassau County courtroom still maintaining his innocence and blaming his victims, now almost two years dead.
"I was defending myself," he told the judge. "As far as I'm concerned, I would have been killed."
Judge Cotter, sighting a "total lack of remorse," gave Mr. Pierotti two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, and then tacked on 22 years for weapons possession.
Mr. Pierotti, who remained expressionless while the judge described his actions as "callous" and "vicious," leaned toward his attorney, Mark Goidell, and said, "I didn't hear half of that."
"He wasn't a man -He wasn't a man," said a relative of Willis Frost, who had hoped for an eleventh-hour confession.
"I just want to know why he did it," said Mr. Kennedy's mother Carol. "I can't believe the hurt that my sons and I go through everyday."
Still, the relatives were overwhelmingly in favor of the sentence. "I'm elated," said Mr. Frost's sister Carole Parker. "It's finally over and it's the best possible outcome."
"Baldwin will be a lot safer place," her brother Jack Frost agreed. "I'm glad they gave him the maximum sentence allowed."
Both families had asked District Attorney Denis Dillon to seek the death penalty but were denied.
Forgiveness remains out of reach. "That man, as far as I'm concerned, does not deserve to live; does not deserve to breathe because my son's not breathing," Ms. Kennedy said. "I know I should be forgiving but I just can't."
Mr. Kennedy, 36, and Mr. Frost, 41, both of Baldwin, were found dead outside the Dragger Inn Tavern on Wednesday, December 23, 1998. They had been shot at point-blank range. By February of 1999, Mr. Pierotti had been arrested for the crime and in June of this year he was convicted by a jury of his peers after just 5 1/2 hours of deliberations. Mr. Pierotti plans to appeal.
The most damning testimony in the trial came from Mr. Pierotti's ex-girlfriend, Melissa Ferris, with whom he shares three children. According to Assistant District Attorney Michael Walsh, she told the jurors that just hours before the murders her boyfriend had demanded she give him the gun they kept in the house. And, the assistant D.A. said, when Mr. Pierotti returned home around 2 P.M., he told her that he had been in a fight and "just killed two people."
During the sentencing, Mr. Goidell tried to have the conviction thrown out because Ms. Ferris had attended meetings between the attorney and his client before the trial. They believe that these meetings made the prosecution privy to information it should not have had. The judge through out the motion calling it "conjection and innuendo."
Tears for the children
Before the sentencing, Mr. Goidell asked the judge to think of Mr. Pierotti's three children and be lenient.
"I feel bad for your children," Judge Cotter said. And then proceeded to berate Mr. Pierotti for the home environment he and Ms. Ferris provided their children. "[It is a] horrible environment to grow up in."
The judge reminded the convicted murderer that while his victims died almost instantly, the suffering of their children and loved ones "goes on and on."
In a letter to the judge asking him for the strongest sentence possible, the Frost family said that while Mr. Pierotti's children could visit him in prison, his victim's children had to visit a grave. Mr. Frost's children are 8 and 11. Mr. Kennedy's son is 17.
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