Defendants in Mechanicville murder sentenced to prison
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Two southern Saratoga County young men were sentenced to long prison terms Wednesday for the 2017 killing of a Mechanicville resident as competition for drug sales escalated out of control.
In a sometimes emotional morning in Saratoga County Court, Victor M. Mavashev, 21, and Joseph A. Broscko, 17, were sent to prison Wednesday for killing David J. Feliciano, 19, inside his Grove Street apartment Aug. 7. Both men changed their original not guilty pleas to guilty earlier this year. The agreed-upon sentences for the crime of seconddegree murder were handed down in court to the two men by Saratoga County Court Judge James A. Murphy III. Mavashev was given 20 years to life in prison and Broscko 18 years to life.
Emotions that had been kept under control at earlier court appearances overflowed during the readings of victim impact statements from Feliciano’s mother, Bonnie Jones, and his girlfriend, Nadine Doyle. The two women stood before a packed courtroom and a bank of media cameras and through tears and sometimes shaky voices told Mavashev and Broscko how much pain the murder had caused them and their respective families.
Jones described getting the call from the Mechanicville police chief early in the morning of Aug. 8, who told her her son had been murdered.
“Because of you, my worst nightmare happened in the early morning of Aug. 8,” she said. “Nothing was making sense and
after a brief pause for crying and hysterically screaming I had to call family and friends and repeat this nightmare over and over.”
Jones continued, saying she could not imagine the fear that was enveloping Feliciano, her child, as he ran from the apartment with five gunshot wounds.
“I wish I could hit pause to protect him. No parent should ever have to feel the pain and heartbreak that you both have caused,” she said. “On that day you planned to go to David’s house to rob him but you robbed us. You stole all my future hugs and my, ‘I love yous.’ You stole amazing conversations. Our family will never be the same.”
She added that the murder of her son has ruined many lives and broken many hearts and that she wished she could go an entire day without crying once.
In her statement, an equally emotional Doyle recalled how Feliciano had been friends with the two men, had cooked for them, given them a place stay, and had helped him when his car broke down.
“You looked up to David, spoke kindly of him,” she said. “David so badly wanted you to get off heroin. You both ruined my life, ruined the plans we had. David’s life just started. I used to think it would take a whole army to stop him, not two (expletive deleted). You’ve ruined your lives at a young age. Now we get to watch you rot.”
Statements from Feliciano’s sister Amanda, his godmother Lisa Schofield, and his father Brian were read in court by Assistant District Attorney Charles Bucca, who prosecuted the case.
Amanda Feliciano described how the murder had taken away a piece of the family and now the family would never be the same.
Schofield said she wit- nesses a mother’s grief and that of siblings every day.
Brian Feliciano said the happiest day of his life was when his son David was born and the saddest was Aug. 7. He described how overnight he became a 45-year-old man who suffers nightmares and starts every day with tears.
“I think of my son lying in a driveway with five gunshot wounds, and I wonder if he was thinking of me,” he wrote. “If you are a person who has loved a son you still won’t be able to understand the pain I feel every day.”
When given a chance to speak both Mavashev and Broscko meekly said they now understood the pain they had caused and were sorry their actions had destroyed lives and families.
When Mavashev’s attorney, Cheryl Coleman, spoke to the court about the remorse she now sees in her client and described him as “not a bad person,” several people in the gallery laughed loudly, drawing a reprimand from Murphy.
Broscko’s attorney Matt Chauvin said he has also seen his client become more focused on the reality of the crime as time has gone on.
In handing down the sentences, Murphy said he could not imagine what the family had been through. He added that courts can only provide punishment, keep society safe, and act as a deterrent to future crimes. It cannot, Murphy said, ever make “hearts full again.”
In speaking to Mavashev and Broscko, Murphy said they were “incredibly dumb to be in this court for this crime” and that he found it frightening that the two had planned the killing.
He had his harshest words for Mavashev, the older of the two men and one who, Murphy said, was making $1,000 a day through his drug trade.
“If only you had used your resources, you would not be sitting in that chair,” he said. “You killed someone in cold blood. You killed someone you knew since the second grade. It’s a horrific crime with severe consequences.”
In speaking to Broscko, Murphy said the 17-year-old was deeply responsible as a co-conspirator.
“It stuns the court that you could not only commit the crime but try to cover it up,” Murphy said.
In addition to the prison terms, a permanent order of protection was issued for Nadine Doyle until 2046. Funeral expenses were to be reimbursed to the Feliciano family through the appropriate agency of the Crime Victims’ Unit. Both men were also required to give samples of their DNA.
The two men were remanded to deputies from the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department and taken to Saratoga County Jail to start serving their sentences.