The widow of a New York City fire marshal was sentenced on Thursday to 25 years to life in prison for killing him, a sentence that was greeted by spontaneous applause from a courtroom filled with the dead man’s colleagues, friends and relatives.
The marshal, Douglas Mercereau, 39, was fatally shot on Dec. 2, 2007, while he slept in his bed in his Staten Island home. A jury convicted his wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, of second-degree murder on May 21.
Ms. Redmond-Mercereau, 40, betrayed no emotion after the sentence was pronounced in State Supreme Court in Staten Island. She averted her gaze from the crowd when being led in and out of the courtroom and stared straight ahead throughout the hearing.
Justice Robert J. Collini twice offered her the opportunity to speak on her own behalf, but she said she would “stand by” what her lawyers had said.
James Mercereau, one of the victim’s brothers, spoke during the hearing of the fire marshal’s warmth and compassion.
“Justice feels really, really great,” he added outside the courtroom after the hearing.
Bill Kregler, president of the Fire Marshals Benevolent Association, said, “There’s no winning, no satisfaction, no pleasure — only justice served.”
Mr. Kregler also criticized Ms. Redmond-Mercereau’s behavior in court. “She could have said something today,” he said. “But she left the courtroom with the same smirk that she’s come into the courtroom with for the last few weeks.”
Lawyers for Ms. Redmond-Mercereau continued to assert her innocence, and one of them, Joseph Benfante, said the forensicevidence “just did not add up.”
“All I’m saying is, juries make mistakes,” he said.
During the trial, prosecutors said that the couple’s marriage was unhappy and that Ms. Redmond-Mercereau was “a volcano” who killed her husband after years of being teased and criticized about her housekeeping and her weight, which increased after the birth of the couple’s second daughter.
Another of Ms. Redmond-Mercereau’s lawyers, Mario Gallucci, in asking the judge for leniency, said she was a loving wife and mother. The couple had two daughters, who are 6 and 8 and are in the custody of one of the marshal’s brothers.
Yolanda L. Rudich, an assistant district attorney, argued that Ms. Redmond-Mercereau deserved the maximum sentence and recounted the events of the killing: Douglas Mercereau was shot three times in the head at the couple’s home in the Oakwood neighborhood, and evidence indicated that he was still alive after the first shot.
“But she didn’t care,” Ms. Rudich said, “and she didn’t stop there.” The second shot, she said, was fired only four inches from his head.
Just before the sentencing, the judge read a presentence report by the Department of Probation that described the crime as “cold, calculated and callous.”
Justice Collini said the department had recommended the maximum punishment, “and this court agrees.”
Cindy Thompson, a sister of Douglas Mercereau, said: “I lost a good friend. The world has lost a really good person.”
The sentence, she added, is “the icing on the cake. We’re done with her.”
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