Demetrius Blackwell, (c.), was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of New York Police Department Officer Brian Moore on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 in Queens, N.Y. (POOL/POOL)
May all his Christmases be grim.
The punk who murdered Officer Brian Moore sat smirking at the defense table in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday morning after his attorney, David Bart, begged the Hon. Gregory L. Lasak for leniency because of his client's “compromised brain.”
He would have had an easier time asking for water in hell.
Lasak, one of the best judges on the Queens bench, sentenced the cop killer to life without parole.
Never being able to hear her son's laughter is "my life sentence without parole," Irene Moore (r.), the mother of slain New York Police Department Officer Brian Moore. (JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
“Let me make that clear for your compromised brain,” Lasak said. “It means you are going to die in jail. You will never again breathe air beyond the steel and concrete of prison. Get his smirking face out of my courtroom.”
Court officers did not allow the police jammed into the courtroom to erupt into cheers and applause.
The sentencing of Brian Moore’s killer brought a grim end to this sad blue tale of the city which began on May 2, 2015 when the young cop was working an NYPD anti-crime patrol in plainclothes with partner Erik Jansen of the 105th Precinct. As Moore drove an unmarked Crown Victoria through Queens Village, he spotted Demetrius Blackwell, 35, turning away from the approaching car with a hitch in his step, fussing with his waistband.
Moore slowed the car, asking what Blackwell had on him.
Blackwell, a career criminal with a violent history, pulled a .38-caliber five-shot pistol stolen from a shop in Perry, Ga.
“Yeah, I got something!” he shouted.
Then this unremarkable substance-abusing nobody opened fire, striking 25-year-old Moore once in the head before he or Jansen could reach for their service weapons.
Jansen burst from the passenger seat, barking into his radio for backup. As Jansen cradled a bleeding Moore, Blackwell ran, ditching the gun and changing clothes in a nearby backyard. Backup cops raced Moore to Jamaica Hospital, where he would die two days later. Cops found the gun and arrested Blackwell, later matching him to DNA on the unspent shells in the murder weapon.
Judge Lasak caught the case and after a three-week trial a jury brought back a guilty verdict in five hours.
The nobody who would be known by an inmate number from that day on took the life of someone special, a son and brother, a boyfriend planning a marriage, a dear friend and fellow cop to the men and women of the 105th Precinct.
Hon. Gregory L. Lasak told Blackwell he is "going to die in jail" without parole regardless of his "compromised brain." (ANTHONY DELMUNDO/ANTHONY DELMUNDO FOR NEWS)
Instead of being at a wedding to his girlfriend, Brian Moore was wheeled to the altar of St. James Church in Long Island in a flag-draped casket. I will never forget watching the young cop’s mother, Irene Moore, follow her son's coffin into the requiem mass two days before Mother's Day 2015.
She read an eloquent impact statement directly to Lasak on Tuesday, imploring the judge to mete out the maximum sentence for the man who took away her son’s laughter — forever.
“This is my life sentence without parole,” the mother said.
Police officers jammed into the courtroom refrained from erupting into cheers and applause amid Blackwell's life-without-parole sentence. (JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Lasak didn’t let her down, acknowledging her strength and eternal sadness in his life-without-parole sentence.
I thought about my own mother as I sat with District Attorney Richard Brown in the front row as the courtroom emptied, asking what he thought of Lasak's sentence.
“Appropriate,” said Brown, in a raspy whisper.
The last time Brown and I spoke was over five years ago when he confirmed that he was suffering from Parkinson's Disease which had claimed my mother after a slow, agonizing decline that ended with dementia. Brown was 79 then, insisting he was still able to perform the duties of his office even though sleep apnea awakened him four or five times a night.
Now 84, Brown has two years left on his current term as rumors swirl that he would soon be stepping down as his Parkinson's worsened.
“I have great doctors and terrific people working for me,” he told me. “I intend to serve out my term.”
I asked what the next big case was coming up in his office.
“The jogger murder, I think,” Brown said, referring to the rape and murder in Howard Beach of Karina Vetrano. “Sometime in the spring, I think.”
The scheduled judge is Hon. Gregory L. Lasak.