Donnell Brunson said he was sorry Tuesday for killing his girlfriend Danielle Barbuti, but said she had a dark side only he saw.<\/p>\n
At his sentencing hearing, Brunson told Lackawanna County Judge Michael Barrasse he couldn\u2019t listen to love songs without thinking of Barbuti. He also said Barbuti had devil masks and statutes around the house \u2014 items that were never found.<\/p>\n
A jury found Brunson, of Taylor, guilty of first-degree murder in September, triggering a mandatory life sentence in compliance with state guidelines. The jury also found him guilty of risking catastrophe, for which he received 18 to 24 months behind bars, following his life sentence.<\/p>\n
The people who loved Barbuti described at Tuesday\u2019s hearing her creative and supportive personality and expressed anger toward her killer.<\/p>\n
\u2018Shattered two families\u2019<\/p>\n
Leandra Barbuti described her sister as \u201ca loving, irreplaceable part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was particularly sad because her sister was killed by someone she believed loved her. She recalled being happy for her sister, believing she had found someone who fully supported her. She said she couldn\u2019t imagine the \u201cpain, terror and confusion\u201d her sister felt as Brunson beat her to death.<\/p>\n
The family was especially grieving during the holiday season, Leandra Barbuti said. Her sister will never celebrate another Christmas or see her nieces and nephews grow up.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe loved the cookie baking, the meatball rolling, singing, all of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said Brunson also deprived his children of a father.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shattered two families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Melissa Barbuti, Danielle Barbuti\u2019s sister-in-law, asked why Brunson hadn\u2019t just walked away from what he claimed was a bad situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou expect us to believe believe you were afraid for your life?\u201d she said, noting that Brunson had watched television and smoked a cigarette after killing Barbuti.<\/p>\n
Michelle LaBar, who lived in an apartment below Danielle Barbuti, said Brunson not only killed her friend. He also endangered the lives of everyone in the building and on the block when he attempted to cause an explosion by leaving a natural gas stove running.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanielle was someone I knew, trusted and loved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
LaBar said it was difficult to speak about her friend\u2019s death and testify at trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to relive these events,\u201d she said. \u201cI did it because I think it was important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrasse said he didn\u2019t believe Barbuti was a Satan worshipper, found nothing in the court record to support it and found Brunson\u2019s claims \u201chollow and insincere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Held accountable<\/p>\n
Brunson went to bed Nov. 29, 2023, believing Barbuti, 49, had cheated on him.<\/p>\n
He woke up in a rage the next morning and repeatedly punched her in the head. He also hit her with a ceramic ashtray and covered her face with his hands and with a pillow.<\/p>\n
Barbuti suffered severe head trauma. Police found her dead later that day.<\/p>\n
Brunson told police he took sleeping pills, slashed his wrist and tried to blow up the second-floor apartment at 1019 Luke Ave., Scranton.<\/p>\n
He woke up surprised to be alive and told police his death was \u201chow it was supposed to end.\u201d Brunson said he couldn\u2019t stand to look at Barbuti\u2019s body and covered it with a sheet before leaving the apartment.<\/p>\n
Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela said the hearing provided a chance for Danielle Barbuti\u2019s friends and family to express their grief and outline Barbuti\u2019s personality. This was especially important because much of Brunson\u2019s defense at trial was based on assassinating Barbuti\u2019s character, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an absolute privilege to pursue justice on behalf of Danielle Barbuti, who was savagely murdered by a man that she loved, trusted and had invited into her home,\u201d Varela said. \u201cWhile we never take joy in days like today, when an innocent victim\u2019s life was taken, the reality is that Donnell Brunson was appropriately held accountable and sentenced for this brutal act of intimate partner violence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donnell Brunson said he was sorry Tuesday for killing his girlfriend Danielle Barbuti, but said she had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,202,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,4168],"class_list":{"0":"post-62980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-taylor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}