Rot for life, cop killer
Furious judge slams cop killer ‘my soul was severed from me,’ says finest’s mom
A RUTHLESS cop killer — sporting a jail jumpsuit and a smirk on his face — was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The mother of slain cop Brian Moore spoke in a courtroom packed with New York’s Finest about how close she was to her son before Demetrius Blackwell shot him in the head in Queens two years ago.
“My bond, my soul was abruptly severed from me,” Irene Moore said in her sentencing impact statement. “For me, there is no moving on.”
She said the bond between a parent and child was the “closest on Earth.”
The mom clutched her mouth when Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak put her son’s killer away for rest of his life.
“You’re a cold, calculating killer,” Lasak said to Blackwell, who shot Moore on May 2, 2015. “You realize what you did. You killed a man for no reason.”
Blackwell showed no emotion — save a slight smirk — as Lasak laid into him. A sea of NYPD uniformed cops, plainclothes officers and department brass filled the courtroom and stared daggers.
The killer’s icy demeanor did not go unnoticed by the judge.
“Get his smirking face out of my courtroom,” Lasak said immediately after the sentencing.
Cuffed and cold-hearted, Blackwell declined to address the court.
A jury found Blackwell, 37, guilty of first-degree murder in November after only five hours of deliberations. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Moore’s partner, Erik Jansen, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Moore was only 25 when Blackwell shot him in the head on a streetcorner in Queens Village.
Despite his young age, Moore had already amassed 150 arrests as an NYPD officer and garnered awards for his service.
He worked in an elite anticrime unit that patrolled streets in plainclothes and in unmarked cars looking for suspicious activity.
On the night of the shooting,
Moore and Jansen were riding in an unmarked sedan when they spotted Blackwell crossing the street and appearing to conceal something.
Moore and Jansen slowly trailed him at first. When they pulled up to him to question him at 104th Road and 212th Place, Blackwell whipped out a silver .38-caliber revolver and fired at the officers.
Fellow cops raced Moore to Jamaica Hospital, where he died two days later.
During the three-week trial, prosecutors painted Blackwell as a career criminal who showed no remorse.
Blackwell’s court-appointed defense attorney, David Bart, tried to poke holes in witness testimony. He also said his client suffered from epilepsy and his cognitive ability had been diminished by hundreds of seizures dating to his childhood.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement that the sentencing wouldn’t heal the Moore family’s pain, but he hoped it brought “some degree of closure and comfort to those individuals whose lives were forever changed on that horrific day.”
“It goes without question that the defendant’s actions were a direct attack on our society and the law and soberly reminds us of the unseen dangers that our police officers face each day,” Brown said.
NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins suggested an alternative sentence. “He should be hung, why waste taxpayers dollars with a life sentence?” Mullins said.
New York nixed the death penalty in 2004, more than 40 years after the state executed its last death row inmate, in 1963. The last hanging in New York was in 1889.
Moore joined the NYPD in July 2010, following in the footsteps of his father, retired Sgt. Raymond Moore. His uncle and cousin also served on the force.
During the sentencing, Lasak consoled Raymond Moore, noting that presentencing court papers showed that the dad had expressed regret in getting his son to join the NYPD. “You shouldn’t do that, Sir, you’re a good father,” the judge said. He commended the dad for setting an example that inspired his son to protect and serve the city as well. “It is an honor to you from your son,” Lasak said, his own voice shaking a bit. After the sentencing, Raymond Moore said Blackwell was still getting off easy. “I know this piece of garbage is going to go away for the rest of his life without parole,” he said. “But I feel that if New York City had the death penalty, I’d love to see this animal put down once and for all. And I’m speaking as a father who lost his son.”
As she spoke to Lasak during the sentencing, Brian Moore’s mom recalled how she dropped to her knees when she got the call that her only son had been shot in the head.
Her life, Irene Moore said, was “forever changed, forever turned upside down.”
She said she will always think about what Brian’s life would have been like if those bullets hadn’t hit him.
“This is my life sentence without the chance of parole,” she said.