The Queens man convicted of killing an NYPD officer in Far Rockaway two years ago was sentenced Monday to 115 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Justice Michael Aloise sentenced Guy Rivera, 36, to a maximum of life in prison on the four counts he was convicted of and a minimum of 115 years.<\/p>\n
Queens prosecutors accused Rivera of first-degree murder after he shot officer Jonathan Diller during a car stop on Mott Avenue in March 2024.<\/p>\n
Rivera was convicted of aggravated murder in the first degree, attempted murder and other charges earlier this month after a weekslong trial in Queens Supreme Court. But a jury acquitted him of the top charge of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
In an emotional statement before the sentencing, Diller\u2019s wife Stephanie spoke directly to Rivera, who was seated dozens of feet away from her in the courtroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat day a bull tore through our entire life,\u201d she told Rivera, adding that her family had been given a life sentence without Diller when he was killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is silence in my home where there should be a voice,\u201d she said, urging the judge to impose a life sentence. She said Rivera would one day be judged by God.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Jamal Johnson told Aloise that his client did not have a fair trial because of pre-trial rulings that precluded evidence from being presented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do look forward to our appeal,\u201d Johnson told the judge. He said he advised Rivera not to make a statement because they plan to appeal his conviction.<\/p>\n
At trial, prosecutors from the Queens district attorney\u2019s office made their case to jurors that Rivera fired at Diller with the intent to kill him and avoid arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne person is responsible for those actions \u2014 this defendant,\u201d Assistant DA John Kosinski said in his closing argument at the end of the trial. \u201cHe directed that gun at the person who stood between him and freedom and pulled the trigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the trial, Rivera\u2019s attorneys from the nonprofit Legal Aid Society tried to show jurors that the fatal shot was accidental and went off during a struggle with another officer at the scene, Sgt. Sasha Rosen.<\/p>\n
Johnson sought to show jurors that testimony by NYPD witnesses was not entirely credible. In his closing argument, he told jurors the entire case was investigated by the department and they only heard testimony from law enforcement witnesses who had a strong interest in the case\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be afraid to come into this courtroom and say the words \u2018not guilty,\u2019\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement after the verdict that she was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d the jury did not convict Rivera on the top charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope is that the ultimate sentence in this case will reflect the gravity of his actions, and the profound loss he caused for Stephanie, Ryan, the Diller family, the NYPD, and the entire City of New York,\u201d Tisch added, referring to Diller\u2019s wife and young son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queens man convicted of killing an NYPD officer in Far Rockaway two years ago was sentenced Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-211316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211316","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=211316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}