Man who killed boss gets 21 to life in prison
MONTICELLO, N.Y. » A Sullivan County man who admitted beating his boss to death with a shovel was sentenced Friday to 21 years to life in state prison.
Rickey Bolden, 36, pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder in September as part of a deal under which he would be sentenced to less than the maximum of 25 years to life and would waive his right to appeal.
The December 2016 indictment against Bolden charged him with first-degree murder, for which the maximum sentence is life in prison with no chance for parole. The charge was reduced as part of the plea deal.
Authorities have said Bolden was a maintenance worker at the Pardess Bungalow Colony in the Sullivan County town of Thompson when he used a shovel to kill 61-year-old John Ferrari, of Riverdale, N.J., the colony’s caretaker, in September 2016.
Police found Ferrari’s body on the property two days later while investigating a missing-person report.
Sullivan County District Attorney James Farrell said forensic investigators found Ferrari’s blood on Bolden’s sneakers, sweatshirt and jeans and also found a glove that had been tossed in the garbage that had Ferrari’s blood on the outside and Bolden’s DNA on the inside.
Farrell previously said Bolden stole Ferrari’s car the day of the killing, burglarized a building on the property in an attempt to retrieve a video-recording device and then tampered
Rickey Bolden, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a deal under which he would be sentenced to less than the maximum of 25 years to life and would waive his right to appeal.
with that device.
In pleading guilty, Bolden admitted he struck Ferrari several times in and about the head with a shovel.
Bolden apologized to members of Ferrari’s family in court on Friday.