Posted on 09/25/2006 6:23:31 PM PDT by Coleus
Calling him "a cold-blooded wiseass," a judge sentenced a 22-year-old man to life in prison Friday for murdering a Hackensack man over a $30 drug deal. "You shot him in front of his wife," Superior Court Judge Donald R. Venezia told Akeem Fleming. "And you walked away smugly. You didn't care."
Fleming was 17 when Anthony Settipane, a house painter, went to Central Avenue in Hackensack with his wife to buy drugs on Dec. 10, 2001. A jury in Superior Court in Hackensack found that Fleming took $30 from Settipane and walked away without delivering the drugs. When the Settipanes got out of their car and approached him, Fleming demanded more money, according to testimony during his trial.
When Anthony Settipane said he had no more, Fleming placed his gun to the man's chest and shot him pointblank before fleeing. "He had no reason to kill him," said Denise Settipane, who cried as Fleming was sentenced and did not speak until she left the building. "He got what he deserved."
Anthony Settipane's younger brother, Michael, shook hands with a friend and breathed a sigh of relief as Venezia announced the sentence. "I hope he suffers in jail every day for the rest of his life," he said later, choking back tears. "There's not one day that goes by without me thinking about Anthony."
Fleming stood motionless and hollow-eyed throughout the hearing. He said nothing when given an opportunity to speak. His attorney, Ray Beam, asked Venezia to consider Fleming's young age and impose a 30-year term – the shortest possible sentence for a murder conviction.
However, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi said Fleming deserved no leniency. He had 10 arrests and five delinquency adjudications as a juvenile, she said. He was on probation at the time of the killing and is currently serving a 14-year prison term for three unrelated drug-dealing convictions, Fantuzzi said. Fleming also lied to police, provided a false alibi and kept quiet when police wrongfully arrested and charged another man with the murder, the prosecutor said.
"It just shows what little regard he has, not only for the law but for human life as well," she said. "I think he deserves a sentence that will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life." Repeating himself more than a dozen times in a 30-minute speech, Venezia told Fleming that he had no reason to shoot Anthony Settipane.
"You could have just ripped him off and walked away," the judge said. "You could have just threatened him. Instead, you snuffed him out." Venezia said Fleming didn't shoot the gun by pulling the trigger, but apparently concerned about "being cool," he fired the gun by slapping the hammer backwards with his other palm.
"You are a wiseass. That's what you are," the judge told Fleming.
Fleming must serve more than 63 years before being considered for parole. The sentence he received Friday begins at the end of his current 14-year term. "Your life is effectively over," Venezia said. "You have a long time to think about how different your world could have been."
Bravo, Superior Court Judge Donald R. Venezia and Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi! Bravo, bravo, bravo!!!
Two people with guts, spines and brains.
Two people with guts, spines and brains. >>>
Finally, they blamed the PERSON and not the GUN.
Now we have to pay to keep this loser alive for the rest of his life.
His medical bills, his food, his shelter, his court costs when he files another case to shorten his sentence etc.
He should have been taken out to the back of the courthouse and shot like the rabid animal that he is.
He should have been taken out to the back of the courthouse and shot like the rabid animal that he is.
You're right. Every time a murderer gets less than an execution, the victim is denied justice.
Oh now...I don't know. I used to be a State Parole Officer. The punk is 22? Trust me, he'll find plenty of well muscled and interested young men who really want to be his friend and who will happily introduce him to the ummmm most intimate prison social functions. He won't live very long and a death struggle with AIDS is no fun at all....That's his justice. Then he has to face Real JUDGMENT
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