A Republican prospect for state attorney typical is underneath hearth for aiding a brutal killer.
Law firm John Sarcone represented Robert Sepe, who beat his girlfriend Janette Carlucci to demise with a baseball bat at their Croton-on-Hudson household in 2008. Sepe was sentenced to 25 decades to daily life in jail in 2009.
But Sarcone submitted an enchantment on Sepe’s behalf — and gained.
He persuaded an appeals courtroom in 2013 to decrease Sepe’s sentence from initial diploma murder to a lesser manslaughter depend of five to 25 a long time in prison. The judges were being break up 3 to 2.
Sepe is eligible for parole in 2025 and could be produced for superior habits that yr.
He will be released no afterwards than 2028 based on the minimized sentence, in accordance to point out Office of Corrections and Group Supervision information.
Just after the appellate courtroom dominated in his favor, Sarcone explained to lohud.com that that his killer customer was not “some member of a avenue gang, or a murder-for-employ the service of male, or a mass murderer or a serial killer. … Sad to say, he snapped, for which he is paying out. It is a sad, tragic case. Of course there’s a ton of empathy below. We felt that justice was served.”
But Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Ideal NY, explained Sarcone’s illustration of the baseball bat killer will make him unfit to be the attorney common.
“Sarcone attempted to justify this horrific murder. It is Alright to beat a woman to loss of life with a baseball bat?! This is eye opening. It’s a major crimson flag,” Harrison explained.
She reported Republicans can not accuse Democratic incumbent AG Letitia James of remaining soft on crime if their nominee for the place of work coddled a killer.
Sarcone, through a campaign agent, defended his representation of Sepe.
“John Sarcone has a wide-primarily based legal observe with a concentration on appeals. A loved ones buddy asked him to enchantment this circumstance on behalf of the defendant’s household and, right after hearing the info, 3 New York Condition Appellate Division Judges dominated that thanks to the defendant’s extended-term mental wellness concerns Manslaughter was a extra acceptable conclusion,” reported Sarcone marketing campaign spokesman Rob Ryan.
Then Westchester County District Lawyer Janet DiFiore — now the state’s chief choose — opposed the decreased sentence.
In its ruling, the appeals courtroom mentioned Sepe was emotionally distraught for the reason that of own and business-connected woes. He ran a failing Bronx wellbeing items distribution business.
“The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that the defendant, who was in a fragile mental point out, was in fact influenced by an severe psychological disturbance when he attacked Carlucci, with whom he experienced beforehand shared a loving relationship,” Choose Jeffrey Cohen wrote for the majority.
“We are certain that the jury was not justified in concluding that the defendant was not less than the influence of an intense psychological disturbance, for which there was a realistic explanation, when he attacked and killed Jeanette Carlucci.”
The impression observed that Sepe had “a background of melancholy and a lengthy heritage of nervousness and stress dysfunction that would manifest alone in panic attacks.”
Sarcone faces off from lawyer Michael Henry in the Republican primary for attorney standard.