A Republican prospect for point out lawyer standard is under hearth for aiding a brutal killer.
Lawyer John Sarcone represented Robert Sepe, who beat his girlfriend Janette Carlucci to dying with a baseball bat at their Croton-on-Hudson home in 2008. Sepe was sentenced to 25 a long time to everyday living in jail in 2009.
But Sarcone filed an charm on Sepe’s behalf — and gained.
He persuaded an appeals court docket in 2013 to lower Sepe’s sentence from initial diploma murder to a lesser manslaughter rely of five to 25 years in jail. The judges have been break up 3 to 2.
Sepe is suitable for parole in 2025 and could be unveiled for good behavior that 12 months.
He will be produced no later than 2028 based on the lessened sentence, according to point out Office of Corrections and Neighborhood Supervision documents.
After the appellate courtroom ruled in his favor, Sarcone advised lohud.com that that his killer customer was not “some member of a avenue gang, or a murder-for-employ the service of dude, or a mass assassin or a serial killer. … However, he snapped, for which he is paying out. It is a sad, tragic circumstance. Obviously there is a whole lot of empathy right here. We felt that justice was served.”
But Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Suitable NY, mentioned Sarcone’s representation of the baseball bat killer will make him unfit to be the legal professional standard.
“Sarcone tried out to justify this horrific murder. It is Alright to defeat a woman to demise with a baseball bat?! This is eye opening. It is a massive purple flag,” Harrison said.
She reported Republicans can’t accuse Democratic incumbent AG Letitia James of being comfortable on crime if their nominee for the office coddled a killer.
Sarcone, by a campaign consultant, defended his illustration of Sepe.
“John Sarcone has a wide-based mostly lawful practice with a concentration on appeals. A household good friend requested him to appeal this case on behalf of the defendant’s family members and, right after hearing the facts, a few New York Condition Appellate Division Judges ruled that owing to the defendant’s long-term psychological well being problems Manslaughter was a much more suitable decision,” said Sarcone marketing campaign spokesman Rob Ryan.
Then Westchester County District Lawyer Janet DiFiore — now the state’s main judge — opposed the decreased sentence.
In its ruling, the appeals courtroom claimed Sepe was emotionally distraught due to the fact of own and organization-similar woes. He ran a failing Bronx wellness products distribution business.
“The proof overwhelmingly demonstrates that the defendant, who was in a fragile mental point out, was essentially affected by an serious psychological disturbance when he attacked Carlucci, with whom he experienced formerly shared a loving marriage,” Choose Jeffrey Cohen wrote for the vast majority.
“We are confident that the jury was not justified in concluding that the defendant was not less than the impact of an extraordinary emotional disturbance, for which there was a realistic rationalization, when he attacked and killed Jeanette Carlucci.”
The view famous that Sepe had “a record of depression and a long record of anxiousness and stress disorder that would manifest by itself in worry assaults.”
Sarcone faces off against lawyer Michael Henry in the Republican most important for lawyer normal.