Berkowitz gets maximum term; appeal planned

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 9

Berkowitz gets maximum term; appeal planned

NZPA New York After a friend of one of his victims screamed, “You're gonna burn in hell,” the “Son of Sam” killer, David Berkowitz, was sentenced on Monday to a total of 315 years for six murders and seven woundings. Under New York law, he could be paroled in 30 years. In rapid, assembly linelike appearances before trialcourt judges from three of New York’s five boroughs, Berkowitz was given consecutive 25-year-to-life sentences for the six murders in the random shooting rampage that terrorised the city for a year. He received additional sentences for the seven woundings. After the sentencing, Ira Jultak, one of Berkowitz’s attorneys, said an appeal would be filed within 30 days on grounds that Berkowitz was not competent to be tried, enter a plea, or be sentenced.

Berkowitz, who is 25, first appeared to be sentenced for the murder of his last victim, Stacy Moskowitz. After sentencing was pronounced in that case, Daniel Carrique, a friend of the Moskowitz family, bolted from his courtroom seat and went screaming after Berkowitz. However, guards in the court building, which was

overflowing with heavy •security measures, got to Mr (Carrique first and carried him from the courtroom. He was arrested and charged with assault and obstruction of Government administration, a court officer said. Then, Justices Nicholas Tsoucalas, of Queens, and William Kapelman, of the Bronx, took the bench and completed the one-hour session. It brought, at least for a moment, an end to the ram. page that began on July 29, 19/6, and ended on August 11, 1977, when he was arrested outside his suburban Yonkers apartment. The three judges recommended that he should never be granted parole for the six murders he admitted committing from July, 1976, until July, 1977. Although the first two judges gave Berkowitz consecutive sentences for murder totalling 275 years. New York state law requires that they all run concurrently so that he could conceivably be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. The third judge. William Kapelman, took note of this anomaly in the law and, speaking in the harshest terms heard in the courts, said: “It is my recommendation that you never be allowed parole, that you serve your

term in prison until the day of your natural death. “It is not my purpose to I scold you for your unspeai kable deeds. You grovel in ■ the very depths of human degradation.” Judge Kapelman asked > i Berkowitz whether he or the demons had entered the guilty pleas. “I took the I plea. That’s what I want,’ I Berkowitz said. Judge Kapelman then i asked if the demons had i anything to do with the ( guilty pleas. “They hadi

some influence," Berkowitz said, “That’s what the demons want." Judge Kapelman said it was his earnest desire that “this defendant remain in jail for life, until the very day of his death." the final matter was disposition of Berkowitzs claim that he set 2000 fires in New York Citv between 1974 and 1977. Judge Kapelman asked Berkowitz if he had set the fires he logged in diaries. “Yes.” he answered. Berkowitz then agreed that sentences for the arsons be included in the terms already imposed against him. However, Judge Kapelman told Berkowitz that if his attorneys successfully appealed his convictions tor the shootings, the arson agreement would be voided and he could subsequently be charged for setting the ' fires. 5.4.L.T. hope* *good' President Jimmy Carter has said that prospects for agreement on a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with (the Soviet Union are good, although the end of the neIgotiations is not yet in 'sight. Mr Carter made the assessment during an interiview with visiting editors |and news directors at the White House. — WashingIton.