| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Still in prison for shooting, ex-cop says he'd do it again
By SHAWN COHEN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: October 3, 2006)
NAPANOCH, N.Y.
From behind bars, Richard D. DiGuglielmo has had almost 10 years to reflect on the evening he killed a man in a dispute over a parking space.
He wouldn't have done anything differently.
In fact, the former New York City police officer said his decision to fire three shots into the torso of a man who struck his father with a baseball bat has sustained him for all of these years.
"I know what I did in my heart was right that day, and that's what helps me get through this," DiGuglielmo said during an interview yesterday at Eastern Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in the Catskills where he's serving 20 years to life for the murder of Charles Campbell. "When I get a little down, I just remind myself that the alternative to what happened that day was going to my father's funeral. And that I couldn't live with."
Still, he called Campbell's death a tragedy and said he often prays for him and his family. He even expressed a desire to meet Campbell's relatives, particularly his brother, who has said he wishes DiGuglielmo had gotten to know the victim before the shooting.
"I wouldn't begin to beg for forgiveness because I don't think he'd be willing to give forgiveness," DiGuglielmo said. "Maybe understanding. He made a comment that the DiGuglielmo family never made an attempt to know (his) brother. ... How was I supposed to take the time to get to know his brother when he was swinging a baseball bat?"
Jurors convicted DiGuglielmo of second-degree murder, relying on witness testimony that Campbell was backing away and not swinging the bat when DiGuglielmo fired.
DiGuglielmo continues, however, to say his conviction was the result of an overzealous prosecution, led by then-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whom he accused of playing the "race card" to gain popularity because he is white and Campbell was black. He said the investigation was carried out by an inexperienced Dobbs Ferry police force that manipulated witnesses, including one who initially told a television news reporter that DiGuglielmo acted in self-defense.
"This is the classic David and Goliath case here," he said. "I'm up against Goliath. How do I fight Westchester County and Jeanine Pirro? It's tough to do because she tap dances and spins everything the way she wants it and she has everybody in her pocket. They're terrified of this person."
In a release last month, Pirro defended her department's handling of the case and noted it has been "reviewed and re-reviewed" by state and federal appeals courts.
DiGuglielmo recently challenged the ruling again, claiming new higher court rulings limit when "depraved indifference" murder charges are appropriate. Nevertheless, he isn't getting his hopes up, saying, "How do you put faith in something that has consistently slapped you down from the beginning?"
Now 41, he has put on 45 pounds in prison, mostly because he's around food much of the day, cooking for civilian staff. He sleeps in a 6-by-8-foot cell, spends his mornings in the kitchen, his afternoons lifting weights and his evenings mopping halls and cleaning showers. He dreams of a day he'll walk free and even maintains a list of things to do after being released — a World War II buff, he would like to visit Normandy. He also fancies himself living on a tiny vineyard or buying a boat so he could take people fishing or diving.
"A lot of it's dreams that will never come, but that's what life is about, dreams," he said. "That's what makes life worth living."
Still, he knows he won't even be eligible for parole until 2017. So he has put his future on hold, having long since cut off ties with the woman he was living with in Hastings-on-Hudson before his conviction.
"She wanted to get married, wanted to have kids, but I'm not raising kids in prison," he said. "You might as well just cut my heart out. I mean, what are you going to do? Watch on videotape when your wife comes up and says, 'Here, watch your son's first steps, hear his first words?' I can't."
DiGuglielmo was 31 on Oct. 3, 1996. Off duty as a police officer, he went to work at his parents' deli in Dobbs Ferry about 5 p.m.
While making coffee, he heard his father's voice outside. His father, Richard B. DiGuglielmo, was talking with Campbell, who parked in the deli lot and walked across the street for pizza. Soon after, his father returned to the deli, grabbed a no-parking sticker and placed it on Campbell's Corvette. DiGuglielmo said he then saw Campbell charging toward his father.
DiGuglielmo said he jumped in front of his father and raised his hands to block Campbell.
"He just went off, just started punching me," he said. "He hit me in the mouth three times."
According to DiGuglielmo, he then grabbed hold of Campbell and they hit the ground. He said Campbell bucked him off and then went after his father, who grabbed his shirt. He said Campbell "ducked out" of the shirt and came up in a "fighter's stance" before retreating.
DiGuglielmo said he went back inside to wash blood from his mouth. He saw Campbell wielding a bat that he grabbed from his trunk. By this time, DiGuglielmo's brother-in-law had joined the melee.
"All I seen was him (Campbell) swinging the bat, and that's when I reached for the gun," he said.
He said he then ran out, saw his brother-in-law face down, and Campbell striking his father again.
"My father was stepping to the side and Campbell was swinging again the third time," he said. "That's when I shot him."
He admits he gave no warning and didn't announce he was a police officer, but said he wasn't required to do so.
"It was just autopilot," he said. "I saw somebody beating my father with a bat, I had to stop him and, at that point, my police training kicked in. When you've got deadly physical force, you just react to the situation."
He said he aimed for the Campbell's upper body to ensure he hit his target and avoid hitting bystanders.
DiGuglielmo said the case against him was prejudiced from the start, with prosecutors portraying the DiGuglielmos as "animals" and Campbell as an "innocent victim."
DiGuglielmo was found not guilty of intentional murder, but guilty of second-degree murder on the theory he showed a depraved indifference to human life.
He, his father and brother-in-law were all acquitted of assault charges.
While DiGuglielmo's father had been the subject of police complaints for harassing people at his store, he pointed out that Campbell himself had an extensive criminal record, including two assault convictions.
Reflecting on his actions that fateful day, he remains convinced he made the right choice.
"I don't think I would do anything differently," he said. "I don't mean to trivialize what happened that day. It was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for both families, and unfortunately a man lost his life. If I could change that, I would, but I can't. But on the other side of the coin, I saved my father's life."
His father has since told him that he wishes he was the one that died that day. The younger DiGuglielmo said he replies to his father by saying, "Absolutely not.
"I said to him, if the roles were reversed, would he have let me? Could he have lived ... knowing he could have stopped somebody from killing me and didn't? He would just look away and answer, 'No.' And I'd say, 'Well, you can't expect me to.' "