Killer decries lawyer, judge

Ex-state correction officer sentenced to 25 years to life

ALBANY— A judge sentenced Paul Barbaritano to 25 years to life in state prison Friday for the throat-slashing murder of 29-year-old Nicole Jennings in a Brevator Avenue apartment during a crack cocainefilled Fourth of July weekend in 2019

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Roger Mcdonough imposed the punishment after Barbaritano, in a rambling speech, claimed his crime was not violent — and cast himself as a victim of prosecutors, his former attorney and the judge.

“You’re a dishonest, corrupt judge!” Barbaritano, 55, screamed at the judge. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not sorry.”

Mcdonough fired back: “You certainly seem to be sorry for yourself. That’s for sure.”

The judge reminded Barbaritano that jurors heard — and rejected — his version of events after the defendant testified at trial.

And the judge warned Barbaritano he would be removed from the courtroom if he continued to be disruptive.

“The old saying is leopards don’t change their spots,” Mcdonough told Barbaritano, telling him that throughout the proceedings, “You’ve conducted yourself in a disingenuous and narcissistic manner and it continued today. With that, you can take the defendant away.”

As he was escorted away by sheriff ’s deputies, Barbaritano, looking at reporters in court, shouted: “Come see me and get the truth!”

Moments earlier, Barbaritano, a onetime correction officer, Army veteran and father of four daughters, listened as Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Mccanney read letters from the victim’s mother, Karen Jennings, brother Daniel and niece.

Jennings had grown up in Galway in Saratoga County, where she was a Girl Scout and played high school softball and volleyball, her mother said in her statement. Karen Jennings said her daughter later gave birth to a son, but became addicted to drugs and struggled with it.

She said her daughter might not have been living the right life at the time of her