Contrite murderer sentenced to 45 years
‘I can never forgive myself for what I’ve done. I cannot apologize enough’
In accepting a Spring City man’s guilty plea to murder charges and sentencing him to decades behind bars, Chester County Court Judge Anthony Sarcione took time Thursday to note the pain and family devastation that was apparent in his courtroom.
“This is a most trying time that seems almost unbearable,” Sarcione told the families that had gathered to watch Zachary Ludwig take responsibility for the death of an upstate New York man he did not know, but whom he was angry with for dating his former girlfriend. The devastation, on both sides of the courtroom, is almost too much to bear.”
Ludwig, 23, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the July 2015 shotgun death of Nicholas Mruczek, a 20-year-old who was living in an apartment complex in North Coventry with friends while attending auto mechanic’s school in Uwchlan. Ludwig had faced a possible sentence of life without parole if he had been convicted of firstdegree murder.
Sarcione accepted the plea agreement that had been negotiated between the prosecution and the defense and sentenced Ludwig to 45 to 90 years in state prison.
The third-degreemurder conviction carried with it the maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison, but Ludwig also pleaded guilty to several other offenses — attempted burglary, terroristic threats, prohibited offensive weapons, recklessly endangering another person, possession of instruments of a crime — that were added to the murder sentence.
As his parents and the family and friends of the victim looked on in Sar- cione’s courtroom, Ludwig, choking back tears, asked for forgiveness from the Mruczeks.
“I want to apologize to the family,” he said, standing before Sarcione. “Every day I wish I could bring Mruczek back. I can never forgive myself for what I’ve done. I cannot apologize enough.
“I understand if you think I am a monster,” Ludwig said, a large, heavyset man with a shaved head, scars on his scalp, and a light goatee. “I’d have to agree with you.”
Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant District Attorney Chad Maloney, said that her office had consulted with the Mruczek family before offering the third-degree murder plea offer to Ludwig’s attorneys. She said that the decision to seek a less-than-life sentence because of Ludwig’s relatively young age, his lack of any criminal history, and his acceptance of responsibility, including a full confession on the day of the crime.
She said that the sentence would give Ludwig the opportunity “to someday see the light of day” outside prison. “We know this is a sad day for him as well.”
Ludwig’s attorneys, Assistant Public Defender P. J. Redmond and Assistant Public Defender Nellie Bey, told Sarcione that they had gone over in detail the case against their client with him, and explored all possible defenses, including a mental health case because of his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. They said he had agreed, however, to give up his right to a trial, plead guilty, and accept the prosecution’s offer.
Before Sarcione imposed the sentence, he heard from Mruczek’s father, step-mother, brother, and a family friend who read a letter from his mother, who was seated with almost a dozen others in the courtroom. All spoke about Mruczek’s infectious, friendly, and loving personality, noting a smile he had that would delight those he cast it upon.
“He was one in a million,” said his mother, Dawn Werner, who had traveled from New York to attend the hearing, as had the others. “He had a smile that would light up a room, and he learned at a young age that if he flashed that smile he could melt your heart. He loved to joke around and have a good time. He loved life.”
The victim’s brother, Justin Mruczek, also mentioned his smile in his statement to the court. “There is no real way to put into words what Mruczek meant to us. He was so much to so many people,” Justin Mruczek told the judge. “I wish I could honestly say and think that justice has been served but there is no amount of jail time that can bring back such a beautiful, fun-loving life like my brother’s.”
Mruczek’s father, Patrick Mruczek, gave a poignant statement about his memories of his youngest son and the times they spoke together — almost daily — on the phone. Now, he said, “my cellphone only reminds me of the death of my son. How I hate my phone. If it was not for all the pictures (of Mruczek) I have on it I would have thrown it away long ago.
“A big part of my life is gone and I will never get that back,” Patrick Mruczek told Sarcione. “My life is emptier and more solemn. I smile with people only to hide the tears and laugh so no one will seeme cry.”
As they spoke, Ludwig sat at the dense table between Redmond and Bey, showing no outward emotion.
In the courtroom for the plea were West Pottsgrove Officer Robert Radswillas, one of the first at the scene who spoke with Mruczek after he had been wounded, and North Coventry Detective Thomas Barton, one of the lead investigators.
In her description of the murder, Frei said that police had first responded to a 911 call at the Highland Manor Apartments on Schuylkill Road at 2:15 a.m. July 15, 2015. There they found Mruczek, laying in the apartment covered in blood. His roommate and childhood friend, Jason George, who also attended the hearing Thursday, was trying to stop the bleeding.
Radswillas began treating Mruczek, Frei said. He cut Mruczek’s shirt up the front and observed a single gunshot wound to the left chest. Mruczek was coughing and spitting up blood.
When Radswillas asked Mruczek who shot him, Mruczek replied, “Zach.” Radswillas then asked Mruczek: “Zach who?” and he replied, “My girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.” The name of Ludwig’s former girlfriend has never been publicly released.
Mruczek was taken to the Pottstown Memorial Hospital and then transferred to the Lehigh Valley Hospital trauma center, where he died the following day.
In police interviews, George and Mruczek’s other roommate said that he had come to them around 2 a.m. and said he needed their help, to “watch” him as he went outside to meet someone. George said that as they watched from the window, he saw someone approached Mruczek, who turned and said, “What are you going to do, shootme?” He then saw Ludwig point a shotgun at Mruczek and heard a single gun blast.
Mruczek yelled at his friends not to come outside. They saw that he had been shot as he came inside, and went into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror, and then collapsed on the floor in the hallway.
Mruczek’s girlfriend later told police that Ludwig was angry about her relationship with Mruczek, that he owned several firearms legally but he had previously claimed he would get a “dirty gun” and shoot Mruczek.
On the day of the shooting, county Detective James Ciliberto and Barton interviewed Ludwig at the Spring City police station. Although he initially denied being involved, he ultimately admitted that he shot Mruczek because of his relationship with the ex-girlfriend.
Although he owned guns, Ludwig said he bought a Remington .410 shotgun from a person he worked with, and cut it down until the barrel was only 12 inches long. He also cut off the stock.
He went to Mruczek’s apartment in his father’s car, parking it several hundred yards from the complex and walking across a far field to get there. He wore a black long sleeve shirt and concealed the sawed off shotgun inside his shirt sleeve, and went inside the apartment building with the intention of killing Mruczek. He walked up the stairs, knocked on the door, called for Mruczek to come outside.
When Mruczek came outside, Ludwig said, he shot him in the chest. He told Sarcione during the two-hour long proceeding that he had never met Mruczek before.
Sarcione told those from both families that he had seen numerous cases involving the death of an innocent person in his years on the bench and as a prosecutor, and that he had no “magic wand” to help ease their pain. But he said that the memories of those who died had always helped survivors continue on.
“Someone once said that death leaves a heartache that no one can heal, but that love leaves a memory that no one can steal,” he said. “I think that’s true.”