By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
Despite not being convicted of the top murder charge, the man who shot and killed an NYPD officer in Queens was sentenced to 115 years in prison by a judge on Monday. <\/p>\n
Guy Rivera will serve the remainder of his life in prison for the 2024 shooting of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller in Far Rockaway, as well as for the attempted murder of Diller\u2019s partner and weapons charges. <\/p>\n
He will not be eligible for parole until after the 115-year sentence has run out, when he would be 151 years old. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe will die in a prison cell,\u201d Queens Judge Michael Aloise said standing from behind the bench. <\/p>\n
Rivera, a 36-year-old resident of the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City, was acquitted of first degree murder charges by a jury in April. But he will serve the minimum sentences for the charges he was found guilty of \u2013 manslaughter, attempted murder and weapon possession \u2013 consecutively, equating to what Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz called \u201cessentially a life sentence.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rivera\u2019s attorneys said after the sentencing that they plan to appeal the outcome of the emotional three-week trial, claiming that Rivera was not given a fair shake. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors and Aloise considered the conviction to be Rivera’s third strike, following previous felony convictions for aggravated assault and criminal possession of a controlled substance. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour sentence was determined the second you pulled the trigger,\u201d Aloise said, speaking directly to Rivera. <\/p>\n
While making his determination, Aloise criticized the defense\u2019s description of Rivera\u2019s actions as merely a \u201cbad decision.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a deadly decision,\u201d the judge said, adding that the defense\u2019s characterization of events was evidence of \u201chow low we have sunk morally as a society.\u201d <\/p>\n
Diller\u2019s widow, Stephanie Diller, spoke through tears in Queens Criminal Court, reflecting on her husband of 12 years, and rebuking Rivera, who remained sullen for the duration of Monday\u2019s proceedings, directly. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou took the future we planned together, the life we were building,\u201d she said. \u201cIn a single moment, everything that was my life was gone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stephanie Diller said her husband\u2019s death gave her and her family a \u201clife sentence,\u201d and called for the judge\u2019s decision to reflect that. <\/p>\n
After speaking, she left the courtroom and did not return to hear what sentence befell the man convicted of killing her husband.<\/p>\n
Following the sentencing, both Katz and Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry applauded Aloise\u2019s ruling. <\/p>\n
\u201cJonathan Dillar woke up in the morning and made several choices for his life. He chose to be there with his wife and his son, he chose to come in uniform and he chose to go out and make sure that there were no guns on the street that he could prevent,\u201d said Katz. \u201cGuy Rivera woke up and made very different choices. Those choices ended up with a police officer who was killed and another police officer who almost was killed\u2026These are all choices that were made.\u201d <\/p>\n
The union boss, who was highly critical of Rivera\u2019s acquittal on the murder charge, was satisfied with Monday\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis sentence sent the right message,\u201d he said. \u201cLet’s make no mistake about it, despite what the defense said, this is a murderer. He decided to carry a loaded firearm on the streets of Rockaway, Queens. He pointed that gun at two New York City police officers in full uniform, and squeezed the trigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should never, ever walk the streets again, and he won’t,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was also critical of the jury\u2019s verdict, said the sentence was the \u201cright result.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMay Detective First Grade Jonathan Diller\u2019s memory continue to be a blessing to Stephanie and Ryan, and Jonathan\u2019s brothers and sisters in blue at the New York City Police Department,\u201d she said on social media. <\/p>\n
Rivera was cleared from the top charge of murder in the first degree because the prosecution could not prove that Rivera meant to fire the fatal shot. <\/p>\n
Regardless, Rivera\u2019s counsel from the Legal Aid Society called the sentence \u201csensational,\u201d and announced their intention to appeal. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe did not receive a fair trial,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Jamal Johnson, the attorney-in-charge of the Homicide Defense Task Force at the Legal Aid Society, said the integrity of the jury\u2019s verdict was compromised. <\/p>\n
“The court\u2019s rulings, which prevented the jury from considering important evidence and lesser-included charges supported by the record \u2014 including reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide \u2014 impaired the integrity of the jury\u2019s verdict,\u201d he said. \u201cJust as important, the fact that the court stated it had already made up its mind about sentencing well before the trial was conducted reveals the bias and uphill battle the defense faced throughout this case. Accordingly, we intend to appeal this decision.”<\/p>\n
Diller was a member of the NYPD\u2019s Community Response Team, and was assigned to the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway for patrol the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n
Around 5:43 p.m., Diller and four other police officers stopped a man getting off a bus on Mott Avenue, believing he had a gun. It was a false alarm.<\/p>\n
But at that same time, Diller\u2019s partner saw Rivera and his friend, Lindy Jones, walk out of a nearby store and get into a parked car. Sergeant Sasha Rosen, Diller\u2019s partner, reported that he noticed an \u201cL-shaped\u201d object in Rivera\u2019s coat pocket, then turned to Diller.<\/p>\n
Diller, Rosen and a third officer approached the car Rivera and Jones were in. On body camera and surveillance footage played in court, Diller and Rosen were seen standing outside the passenger side door of the vehicle where Rivera was sitting. Diller tapped on the window multiple times.<\/p>\n
Both Rivera and Jones were slow to respond to the officers\u2019 questions and orders. Eventually, one officer reached inside the open window of the driver side door and unlocked the car. <\/p>\n
In videos played in court, Diller and Rosen were both seen leaning over Rivera getting ready to grab him when a gunshot is heard and Diller was struck. Diller fell to the ground immediately, shouting out, \u201cI\u2019m shot, I\u2019m shot, I\u2019m shot,\u201d repeatedly. Rosen and other officers tackled Rivera to the ground and kicked the gun away as they arrested the defendant.<\/p>\n
Rivera was shot twice during the encounter, once in his left arm pit and once in his right arm.<\/p>\n
Jones remained in the driver seat with his hands up until another officer arrested him.<\/p>\n
Diller was rushed by his colleagues to Jamaica Hospital, the closest trauma center, where he was pronounced dead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach Despite not being convicted of the top murder charge, the man who shot and killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-212877","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\/212877","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=212877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}