“Get his smirking face out of my courtroom.”
So said Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak after sentencing the killer of Police Officer Brian Moore to life in prison without parole, the maximum term allowed by law, plus an additional 55 years.
Killer Shows No Remorse
Scores of police officers and their commanders crowded the courtroom for the sentencing Dec. 19 of Demetrius Blackwell, 37, who fatally shot Officer Moore during a street stop 2½ years ago.
Mr. Blackwell maintained an icy demeanor, declining to address the court. He smiled smugly as Justice Lasak called him a “cold, calculating killer” and “nothing but a coward.”
Officer Moore’s father, a retired NYPD Sergeant, and his mother expressed anger and grief.
“With every single missed birthday, holiday, every milestone that won’t be, all that he didn’t get to do, these are all painful, agonizing feelings that will be with me forever,” Irene Moore said. “And this is my life sentence without the chance of parole.”
Raymond Moore said outside the courtroom that “if New York State had the death penalty, I’d like to see this animal put down once and for all. And I’m speaking as a father who lost his son.”
Suspicious Movement
A jury convicted Mr. Blackwell of first-degree murder Nov. 9 in the shooting of Officer Moore, 25, who with his partner stopped Mr. Blackwell on May 5, 2015, when they saw him fiddling with his waistband, an indication that he was carrying a gun. The officers were working a plainclothes anti-crime assignment.
When Officer Moore asked him, “Have you got something?” Mr. Blackwell replied, “Yeah, I got something,” and fired three shots. Two of them hit the officer, who died two days later. He was promoted to Detective First Grade at his funeral.
He was also sentenced to 40 years to life for the attempted murder of Erik Jansen, Detective Moore’s partner, who has since moved to the Suffolk County Police Department, and to 15 years for criminal possession of a weapon.
Justice Lasak, a former Queens homicide prosecutor, ordered the sentences to be served consecutively. “Let me make this easy for your compromised brain, Mr. Blackwell—you are going to die in prison,” he said. “You will never again breathe air outside the concrete and steel confines of a state prison.”
Attorney Blames Epilepsy
In closing arguments during the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Blackwell was more concerned about the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao boxing match, which had just taken place, than he was about Detective Moore, who lay dying in a hospital.
Mr. Blackwell, a career criminal, suffered from physical and mental problems triggered by hundreds of epileptic seizures he suffered since his childhood, argued his attorney, David Bart.
Sergeants Benevolent Association President Edward D. Mullins suggested, “He should be hung. Why waste taxpayers dollars with a life sentence?”
“This is a person that decided ‘I’m going to kill a human being, a New York City police officer,’” said Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. “He should never breathe free air again. I’d like to make sure this mope never sees the light of day again.”