The New Jersey man who killed Ridgefield resident Brian Schiavetti during a robbery more than three years ago was sentenced Monday in a Newark, N.J. courtroom to 50 years in prison, the news website nj.com reported Monday evening.
Ernest Williams Jr., 24, of Montclair, received the 50-year prison sentence after having been convicted by a jury on Nov. 2 of felony murder, aggravated manslaughter, robbery and related offenses in the July 22, 2012 killing. Williams must serve about 42 years and six months before becoming eligible for parole. He will receive credit for more than three years of time served, according to nj.com.
Williams was found guilty of robbing and fatally shooting Schiavetti in the hallway of a Montclair apartment building after Schiavetti and his friend traveled to the township from Ridgefield to purchase oxycodone pills from Williams.
Before he was sentenced on Monday, Williams said he was “sorry” to the Schiavetti family.
Before his killer was sentenced on Monday to 50 years in state prison, Brian Schiavetti’s brother and mother remembered him as a loyal and loving man who enjoyed helping others and brought immense joy to his family.
Diane Schiavetti recalled how her 21-year-old son was found dead with a chain resting in his hand, including a cross and a medallion she had given him. Brian Schiavetti “fought to his death to keep them from being stolen,” she said.
A picture taken at the crime scene of Schiavetti clutching that chain signifies “his deep religious beliefs and love of God and that surely he is in heaven now as a result,” she said.
“There’s nothing more painful than a mother losing her child, especially to murder,” said Diane Schiavetti, who lived with her son.
“My home is so empty without his lively presence. It’s lonely,” she added. “My heart aches every day and the void of his absence can never be filled.”
During Monday’s hearing, Williams’s attorney, Sterling Kinsale, requested a sentence of 30 years in state prison, which is the minimum amount required for a felony murder conviction, according to the website.
Among other issues, Kinsale pointed to Williams’s youth and the fact that the case represents his first conviction for an indictable offense. A 30-year prison sentence “takes away all the productive years of Mr. Williams’s life,” Kinsale said, according to the website.
But Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Naazneen Khan, who tried the case, called for a 75-year prison sentence. Khan argued that, in addition to killing Schiavetti, Williams has brought fear to the residents of the Montclair building where the shooting occurred.
“They will never again feel safe in their homes,” Khan said on the website. “This defendant victimized that entire neighborhood that day.”
In handing down the 50-year prison term, Superior Court Judge Carolyn Wright noted, among other factors, Williams’s criminal record and the risk of him committing another offense.
While he has no prior felony convictions as an adult, Williams has had five arrests as a juvenile, 14 arrests as an adult and he was found guilty of disorderly persons offenses in municipal court on six occasions, Wright told the website.
The judge said Schiavetti and his friend were “wrong to succumb to experimental and recreational drug use.”
But Wright said Williams “took full advantage of those weaknesses and exploited them” in order to lure them to Montclair and then convince Schiavetti to go inside the building, where he robbed Schiavetti of at least $400 and shot him twice, including a fatal wound to the back of the head.
The judge noted how Williams calmly left the area, placed the loaded handgun in a garbage can and ultimately went to a party before later turning himself in to authorities.
“These were the actions of a young man who was concerned only for himself, acting out of greed without concern for his family or his community,” Wright said.
At the trial, Williams asserted he acted in self-defense, claiming Schiavetti produced the handgun and that Schiavetti was killed when the two men wrestled over the weapon and the gun went off.
During the sentencing hearing, Kinsale reiterated that argument and said Williams acted under strong provocation, but jurors rejected the self-defense claims.
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