(Almost) Getting Away with Murder in New York

A Legislative Column by Assemblyman Dave Townsend (R,WF-Sylvan Beach)

Five years ago, Monica Gilardi was confronted with the news no mother should ever have to hear. Her son, Christopher, had been murdered in cold blood by Gregory Felder, a violent killer, and his two accomplices while the disabled Gilardi had been tending store as a clerk for a Radio Shack on Long Island. Now, Felder is up for parole – and available for an early release despite a maximum sentence from a Suffolk County judge. Blame Albany’s arbiters of justice. A loophole in New York State’s penal laws, embedded like a sleeper cell, is set to detonate in the Felder case unless the parole commissioners turn down this felon’s request for an early reprieve. The New York Legislature must act now to close this loophole and prevent any more Felder-like cases from going to early parole. We owe families like the Gilardis our vigilance and nothing less than a commitment to justice.

The story of Gregory Felder’s journey toward a “get-out-of-jail-free” card is a tale of Albany ignorance and administrative ineptitude. At the time of Felder’s arrest this lifelong criminal was already on parole for a robbery charge. Was Felder punished for his recidivism? Outrageously, this earlier crime wiped away nine years from the sentence for the Gilardi killing. That’s because a wrinkle in the penal code requires class A1 felons, the worst murderers, rapists, and kidnappers, to be given concurrent sentences unless a judge requires the crook to serve his years consecutively with older crimes. The consecutive rule applies to everyone except the most dangerous felons in our state prisons. Felder is also ill, qualifying him for a new medical-parole program that was extended to murderers and sex offenders in April after Governor Paterson signed the bill into law. (I voted no.) The new provision states that killers such as Felder must serve at least half of their minimum term before becoming eligible for medical parole. That’s 12 and a half years for Felder, credited to him thanks to the concurrent sentencing from that judge in Suffolk County. Only five years after killing Christopher Gilardi, Gregory Felder could be a free man.

There is no logical reason why multiple sentences for class A1 felons should automatically run concurrently until a judge utters the magic word “consecutive.” One way to fix this loophole, and deal with the issue of early medical parole, is to require that murderers, rapists, and kidnappers serve at least half of their minimum sentences before seeking medical parole, regardless of judge rulings. In addition, Kate Hogan, the president of the District Attorneys Association, recommends having judges choose between concurrent and consecutive terms in every case, eliminating the assumption of fixed sentencing rules. I hope that when the state Assembly reconvenes, for a special session or otherwise, my colleagues will immediately take up this critically important issue in our current criminal-justice system. Albany politicians have ignored this damaging loophole for too many years; for the sake of Christopher Gilardi and countless victims like him, we must act today.

2 Comments on "(Almost) Getting Away with Murder in New York"

mary on Mon, 12th Oct 2009 8:08 am

murderers, rapists and kidnappers should serve their FULL sentences.. why the hell sentence them to time that is arbitrary… their victims were not given any options therefore, neither should they have the option of half a sentence..that’s destroying the families all over again… Make these people serve their full time..

Anthony Napoli on Mon, 12th Oct 2009 1:43 pm

Let this MURDERER!!!!! die a slow death where he belongs,In prison…Christoper Gilardi didn’t have a chance to die peacfully at home.

(Almost) Getting Away with Murder in New York

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