By WILLIAM J. GORTA
Last Updated: 5:22 PM, January 20, 2011
Posted: 10:54 AM, January 20, 2011
Over the objections of his victim’s family, disgraced ex-cop Jerry Bowens pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering his girlfriend and then shooting her friend in the head as part of a “Dead Pool” list of people he aimed to kill.
The minimum sentence under the terms of the plea deal is 30 years to life, but Bowens, 44, could face as much as 40 years to life when he is sentenced next month.
Lisa D’Onofrio, the younger sister of Catherine D’Onofirio, whom Bowens murdered in March 2009, made an impassioned plea to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus to nix the deal and let Bowens face the 50-to-life for shooting Catherine and her friend Melissa Simmons.
“We don’t understand how anything less than the maximum could be acceptable,” D’Onofrio told Marrus. “She [Catherine] believed in the law. She believed in justice. We hope and pray it will be served.”
Bowens would receive the maximum of 25-to-life for Catherine D’Onofirio’s murder with an additional 5 to 15 years for shooting Simmons.
Marrus said he took the family’s wishes “very seriously,” but believed the case has a “just disposition.”
He said the deal would spare the family the ordeal of a trial and possibly years of appeals.
“The agony and the endurance of that gauntlet of proceedings is very, very stressful,” Marrus said, adding the sentence would stretch beyond Bowens’ life expectancy.
Still, Marrus told the D’Onofrios, “If I were in your shoes I would want more than the law authorizes.”
Bowens was part of a rogue Brooklyn narcotics unit and was bounced from the force and sent to prison for stealing seized drugs and giving them to informants.
Before he could testify against the other officers in the unit, Bowens went berserk and shot D’Onofrio and Simmons, setting off a multi-state manhunt punctuated by on-the-edge phone calls to cops and news media.
After Bowens turned himself in, police found his list of people he intended to kill – including himself and his lawyer – similar to the plot in the Clint Eastwood flick “Dead Pool.”
The ex-cop, head bowed for most of the proceeding, was forced to admit to Marrus what he had done.
“With the intent to cause the death of Catherine D’Onofrio, you did cause her death?” Marrrus asked.
“Yes, I did,” Bowens answered.
“With the intent to cause the death of Melissa Catherine D’Onofrio, you attempted to cause her death?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Where did you shoot Catherine d’Onofrio?”
“Catherine was shot in the head.”
Bowens said he didn’t know where Simmons was shot.
“What kind of handgun did you use?
“A 357.”
Bowens made the deal to spare D’Onofrio’s family the emotional wringer of a trial, said his lawyer Wayne Bodden.
“They may not want to believe it, but he did not want to put the family through [lengthy proceedings],” Bodden said. “He always knew what he did.”
Assistant DA Michelle Kaminsky told Marrus the crimes deserved the full 50-years-to life term.
Earlier this month, Bowens offered to plead guilty to the murder count and accept 25 years to life sentence, setting off a flurry of protest letters from Simmons and D’Onofrio’s family.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic nixed the plan and jury selection was scheduled to begin Thursday when Bowens announced his plea.
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