{"id":183954,"date":"2026-04-02T23:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183954\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:17:20","slug":"top-nyc-lawyers-baffled-by-odd-jonathan-diller-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183954\/","title":{"rendered":"Top NYC lawyers baffled by ‘odd’ Jonathan Diller verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defense lawyers told The Post on Thursday they are scratching their heads over the \u201codd\u201d and extremely rare mixed verdict involving the career criminal<\/a> who killed hero NYPD cop Jonathan Diller.<\/p>\n

Cop-killer Guy Rivera was stunningly acquitted of<\/a> first-degree murder Wednesday for fatally shooting the married dad and officer. He was instead convicted of the lesser charge of aggravated manslaughter in Diller\u2019s death \u2014 and found guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Diller\u2019s partner, who survived the March 2024 carnage in Queens.<\/p>\n

Guy Rivera was convicted of aggravated manslaughter in the killing of NYPD hero cop Jonathan Diller but acquitted on the top charge of first-degree murder. Gregory P. Mango \/ pool<\/p>\n

\u201cIn real time, in the moment, the jury found that the intent was to cause serious physical injury to officer number one [Diller], and moments later he tried to kill officer number two [the partner],\u201d said Jeremy Saland, a defense lawyer and former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like an odd verdict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t believe the intent of the shooter was to kill Diller. It was intent to cause serious physical injury. At the same time, they find [Rivera] guilty for attempted murder. Why the difference? It\u2019s an odd verdict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The legal expert pointed out that even though prosecutors fell short on securing a guilty verdict on all charges, Rivera \u2014 who had 21 previous arrests<\/a> \u2014 will still never \u201csee the light of day\u201d when sentenced April 27, with prosecutors saying he faces up to 90 years behind bars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t fathom a situation that a cop killer could see a lenient sentencing from a judge where it\u2019s not just one person who he caused the death of, but a jury found he intentionally tried to kill another officer,\u201d Saland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuries are never predictable. Is this perfect justice? Probably not in the eyes of God or the families,\u201d the lawyer said. <\/p>\n

Diller was shot and killed in Far Rockaway, Queens, on March 25, 2024, while investigating a suspicious vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s some version of it, and there will be significant accountability for Rivera because state prison ain\u2019t no fun place to be, whether it\u2019s for 25 years or multiples of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top city defense lawyer Ron Kuby echoed Saland\u2019s assurance that even with the acquittal on the most serious charge, Rivera\u2019s conviction on the other charges would still effectively amount to a life sentence for Rivera.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on the shocking mixed verdict reached for career criminal who killed NYPD hero Johnathan Diller<\/p>\n

Kuby also provided additional insight into the jury\u2019s possible thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was convicted of aggravated manslaughter, which carries 25 years [behind bars]. He was convicted of attempted first-degree murder which carries 25-to-life. The sentences will almost certainly run consecutively, and he\u2019ll get a few more years for the gun,\u201d Kuby said of Rivera, 36. <\/p>\n

Diller\u2019s widow Stephanie, center, cries as the verdict is read. Gregory P. Mango \/ pool<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he will probably be eligible for parole for the first time when he\u2019s 90 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera was a passenger in a parked Kia Soul in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024, as Diller and his partner, Sgt. Sasha Rosen, were investigating the suspicious vehicle.<\/p>\n

The career criminal shot Diller<\/a> and had a gun pointed at Rosen\u2019s chest when another officer at the scene shot and wounded the thug, as seen in a heart-stopping caught-on-camera confrontation.<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s lawyer suggested at trial that surveillance camera footage showed his client\u00a0didn\u2019t have eyes on\u00a0Diller when he shot him. He claimed Rosen reached into the car before the gun initially fired to grab Rivera\u2019s firearm\u00a0and argued that the ensuing struggle caused the gun to accidentally discharge at Diller.<\/p>\n

The defense lawyer said Rivera\u00a0could see the guns<\/a> of other officers aimed at him \u2014 and knew he\u2019d be a dead fool if he fired at a cop under those circumstances.<\/p>\n

Kuby said of Rosen\u2019s shooting, \u201c[Rivera] was lawfully stopped, he was lawfully ordered out of the car, Officer Rosen was lawfully struggling with him over the gun, and the jury verdict shows that [Rivera] intentionally fired the shot.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer and former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office Jeremy Saland told The Post he felt the mixed verdict was \u201codd.\u201d Saland Law<\/p>\n

\u201cBut under the circumstances the jury could not conclude that he intended to kill Officer Diller.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could conclude he intended to cause serious physical injury, and that was a function of how the scuffle played out,\u201d Kuby said.<\/p>\n

He said that although he couldn\u2019t think of a similar verdict in a case involving cop-killers, prosecutors in such cases often bring charges they are certain they can make stick, rather than \u201cover-charge like they did here\u201d with the support of police, who will then inevitably blame the jurors if things don\u2019t go their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the murkiness of that \u2014 not what you want the evidence to be but what the evidence actually was \u2014 the top sustainable charge was the one for which he was convicted \u2013 aggravated manslaughter in the first degree,\u201d Kuby said of Diller\u2019s case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense lawyers told The Post on Thursday they are scratching their heads over the \u201codd\u201d and extremely rare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9340,238,9,56,63,65,64,103,122,58,23575],"class_list":{"0":"post-183954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-lawyers","9":"tag-murders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-nypd","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-verdicts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}