Man Who Killed Nassau County Police Officer, Driver Sentenced To Life In Prison
MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A parolee convicted of killing a Nassau County police officer during a traffic stop and then a motorist while he was fleeing was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Nassau County Court Judge Jerald Carter told 34-year-old Darrell Fuller on Friday that the sentence would be a "prelude to the hell that may await you.''
Fuller was convicted in July of first- and second-degree murder in the 2012 deaths of Officer Arthur Lopez and carjacking victim Raymond Facey. According to trial testimony, Fuller had a friend shoot him in the leg after the killings to make it appear he had been a victim.
"There is absolutely nothing redeemable about you,'' Carter told Fuller, whom he referred to as "despicable you.''
Lopez, a 29-year-old from Babylon, and his partner saw a car driven by Fuller collide with a van in October 2012. Fuller, who was violating parole by carrying a loaded gun, drove off in his damaged vehicle.
After a pursuit and traffic stop near the Belmont racetrack, Fuller fired a handgun from five feet away, killing the officer.
He then spotted Facey, 58, of Brooklyn, who had stopped along the road to make a phone call. Fuller killed him with a shot to the head and stole his car, prosecutors said.
Man Who Killed Nassau County Police Officer, Driver Sentenced
At his trial, Fuller's attorney called no witnesses and argued that no one actually saw Fuller firing the shots that killed either Lopez or Facey.
Charo Ramos, daughter of the slain policeman, told Fuller she hopes "the devil takes his time with you.''
June Facey, widow of the carjacking victim, went to the sentencing carrying a framed photo and a construction hard hat that he wore every day, saying "He'll never wear it again."
"Imagine the worst emotional pain you have experienced in your whole life and then multiply it by 10,000,'' Facey told the court, adding that her husband's death was "the waste of a brilliant mind and a beautiful soul.''
Facey's wife said punishing Fuller won't ease her pain.
"You all call it justice and I don't know how to spell justice," she said. "The only justice was to leave my husband alone."
Facey's sister agreed.
"I hope he rots in hell. He had no compassion on Officer Lopez; no compassion on my brother," Valda Passione told reporters, including CBS 2's Andrea Grymes.
But for Facey's aunt, the sentencing was a relief.
"I feel so much better," she told WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs. "I feel that justice has been served because he will not come out to do that to anyone else again."
Darrell Fuller Sentenced To Life In Prison
The judge held up the framed photo and one of Lopez during the sentencing.
Facey's daughter, Dahlia, who was on the phone with her father when he was killed, stared Fuller down in court, 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera reported.
"A despicable human being he was and is," she said.
The courtroom was also packed with Nassau County police officers, most of whom were crying, CBS 2's Weijia Jiang reported.
Officer James Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, said he wished New York had the death penalty, "because that would be the only appropriate sentence.'
"He took away a police officer with a promising career, someone who never became a father, (and) a husband (who) never had the opportunity to enjoy the life he should have enjoyed," Carver added.
Fuller served four years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder in 2005, authorities said. He was jailed again in 2010 after violating his parole on a drug arrest and was released in 2011, prosecutors said.
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