WOMAN WHO KILLED HUSBAND SENTENCED TO 3.5 YEARS
YORK COUNTY — A York County woman was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1⁄2 years in prison for killing her husband in their Bruton home nearly four years ago.
Lynn Judith Fogarty, 36, faced up to 10 years in prison for shooting her husband, 32year-old Giancarlo Di Fazio, in the couple’s bathroom on Sept. 25, 2016.
Fogarty frantically called 911 about 3 p.m. that Sunday afternoon, saying she had shot him. “He tried to kill me,” she told sheriff’s deputies as they arrived at the couple’s Burgundy Road home.
Di Fazio was found naked on the bathroom floor, lying on his back, his legs on either side of the toilet.
York-Poquoson Commonwealth’s Attorney Ben Hahn contended that Fogarty caught Di Fazio unaware — shooting him in the side of the chest as he was urinating. The prosecutor theorized that Di Fazio was about to jump into the shower as he got ready for Sunday Mass.
“She took a life of another human being, and made a conscious choice,” Hahn said, saying Fogarty shot her husband “as he was defenseless and trapped.”
Fogarty had been drinking, Hahn said, having had “bourbon for breakfast and bourbon for brunch.”
Not long before the shooting, she recorded a short video clip — which she later deleted — in which she yelled out, “Tell the
world how much you hate me, Gian.”
Though Fogarty also told investigators that Di Fazio had raped her earlier that morning, Hahn has said there was no evidence of a sexual assault.
Fogarty pleaded guilty in January to the manslaughter charge, avoiding a trial on a first-degree murder charge that could have landed her life behind bars.
Defense attorney Andrew Sacks said the manslaughter admission was based on the legal theory that Di Fazio had “provoked” Fogarty, but that she “overreacted” by killing him.
“Something very wrong happened that day,” Sacks said. “She believed she had to fire to save her life,” he said, contending that Di Fazio “had a very violent side.”
“She’s far from perfect, but a decent soul at heart,” he said.
Before being sentenced, Fogarty testified that Di Fazio had “a long pattern of abuse,” and was threatening her — including pointing a gun at her earlier that day. “He said he would kill me and my entire family, and ‘I’m serious this time,’ ” Fogarty testified.
She said Di Fazio came out of the bathroom with his “hands behind his back,” and “lunged” at her. “I thought he was about to quick-draw the gun,” she testified.
Still, Fogarty spoke of how “deeply sorry” she is.
“I want to express my deep remorse,” she said. “That doesn’t even begin to cover the level of sadness I feel for this tragedy that happened at my hands, unfortunately … Not a day goes by when I don’t wish my beloved husband would come back.”
Sentencing hearings are often relatively short — with the focus typically on the background and character of the defendant and the impact of the crime of victims and families.
But in a hearing that lasted nearly nine hours, both the prosecution and defense seemed intent in delving into the facts and merits of the case, with Circuit Court Judge William H. Shaw III eventually giving up on stopping them.
The defense, for example, played Fogarty’s initial 911 calls. Prosecutors played body camera footage from sheriff’s deputies who found Di Fazio’s body.
The hearing also featured detailed family testimony about the couple’s relationship, and a seemingly jocular video between the couple that Fogarty had titled, “Tales of an Abused Housewife.”
Hahn even spread a floor layout of the couple’s bathroom out on the courtroom floor, reenacting the crime scene for the judge.
Di Fazio’s family talked about how he was a devoted and caring husband and family man, but that Fogarty “exploited his gentleness.”
“He was the most loving and forgiving husband that any woman could hope for,” said Di Fazio’s little sister, Alice Di Fazio, 20.
“She could have divorced him if she was so supposedly unhappy,” she said. “He laid down his life for her and trusted her so much. He believed in a love story, like in a movie.”
Di Fazio’s mother, also Alice Di Fazio, 62, said her son organized a March for Life in Williamsburg, and contributed to causes, including Parkinson’s disease after Fogarty’s father suffered from it. “He would have made a real difference in this pandemic,” she said.
Sacks, on the other hand, portrayed Di Fazio as “highly disturbed.” He said Di Fazio kept 23 guns — most of them loaded — scattered at the ready around the house.
Sacks also introduced evidence that Di Fazio had sent pictures of excrement in the toilet and a picture of his wife’s clothed cleavage to other men, as well as testimony from one of Fogarty’s aunts who called Di Fazio’s family concerned that he was “depressed and suicidal.”
Sacks introduced several character witnesses who raved about Fogarty, a University of Notre Dame graduate who didn’t have a criminal record before this crime.
She worked at the Virginia Employment Commission in Williamsburg and enjoyed people from all walks of life. “She favored those who could hardly use a computer, and needed help with a resume,” said Naomi Flythe, a co-worker at the agency.
Erica Charity, who worked with Fogarty at the Navy’s Fleet and Family Services at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, said that if someone walked in at closing time, “she’d stay and give them what they need.”
If someone gossiped, she said, Fogarty would “flip that around and talk about the positive things about that person.”
Sister Mary Jeanne Oesterle, the president of Walsingham Academy and the former principal at that Catholic high school, said that Fogarty attended the school from the third through 12th grade.
“She was very bright, very compassionate, and always reached out to those who were less accepted,” Sister Oesterle said.
At the end of the hearing, Hahn said Fogarty needed to be sentenced “for what she did, not who she is.” He asked for 5 years and eight months to serve, or the high end of discretionary state sentencing guidelines that began at two years.
Sacks sought only home detention, contending that any prison time would be excessive. Shaw split the difference with the 3 1/2-year sentence, ordering Fogarty to turn herself in Friday after years of house arrest
“I don’t believe that such abuse is the type of abuse that justified doing what you did,” Shaw told her. “You took a life. You took a young life — 32 years old.”
But the modest sentence stunned Di Fazio’s mother as being far too low. “You’re kidding me,” she said, with her sobs growing louder as she was consoled by family as others left the courtroom. “She took my son’s life.”