Bruno gets 35 years to life in prison
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Jonathan Bruno is sentenced for the murder of John Baptie in the Walmart parking lot in Rutland District Court on Wednesday. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Brent Curtis STAFF WRITER - Published: March 18, 2010
Jonathan Bruno will serve 35 years to life behind bars for the killing of John Baptie.
Bruno, who was found guilty by a Rutland jury of second-degree murder in December, apologized to Baptie's family during sentencing in Rutland District Court on Wednesday.
"I'm very sorry for causing John Baptie's death," Bruno said, turning slightly toward but not facing Baptie's family members. "I can only say I'm sorry to have to live with the knowledge that I killed a friend for the rest of my life."
But Judge Thomas Zonay said Bruno, who witnesses said lured the 24-year-old Baptie behind the Walmart in Rutland before using a knife to cut his throat, wasn't credible during his trial or when he offered his apology.
"This was not a case of a tragedy involving a friend," the judge said, citing Bruno's harassment of Baptie and his family and the brutality of the crime. "The court found (Bruno's) trial testimony largely an attempt to avoid responsibility for his conduct."
Bruno stared ahead as the sentence was announced but his mother, seated behind him, shouted out as the judge stepped off the bench.
"Our wonderful legal system," Katherine Bruno shouted.
While the sentence handed down promises to keep the 26-year-old Bruno incarcerated for more than three decades, Baptie's sister, Melissa Baptiewright, said the judge stopped short of what her brother's killer deserved.
"I don't think he should have the things my brother can't have," she said. "I don't care what age he is when he gets out. He's dangerous."
In issuing his sentence, Zonay struck a balance between the prosecution's request of life without parole and the defense appeal for 15 years behind bars for Bruno and a lifetime of probation.
"In this case, the maximum sentence is called for at every angle," Rutland County State's Attorney Marc Brierre said. "What Jonathan Bruno did couldn't be more harmful."
The killing, which happened in midafternoon at the busy Rutland Shopping Plaza, was also a blow to the community's security and required a strong sentence to send a message to both the public and those who might consider similar crimes, Brierre said.
But Bruno's attorney, Kerry DeWolfe, argued that her client's prison term should be reduced due to mitigating factors, including a drug abuse problem which she argued placed Bruno in an altered state at the time of the crime and because of her client's underdeveloped maturity.
DeWolfe said Bruno's emotional growth was stunted at the age of 16 when he served time in an adult jail on a conviction for assault and robbery — a crime DeWolfe said amounted to Bruno punching and kicking another teenager for the $4 he had in his pocket.
While the Bruno of today may be capable of violent acts like the killing at Walmart, DeWolfe said, Bruno would mature and change over the course of a decade and a half.
"He won't be the person down the road that he is today," she said.
Before Zonay handed down his sentence, he also heard from Baptie's father and Baptiewright, who stood before the court and talked about how Baptie's death was a wound that would never heal.
"His shoes are still at the bottom of the stairs and the front hall light is on 24-hours a days so he can find his way home but he's never coming home," Tom Baptie said. "John wasn't only my son, he was my best friend buddy. He was everything to me."
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
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