Tag: mall shooting

  • Bonelli appeal denied

    Mall shooter’s final appeal denied:

    Robert Bonelli, the Hudson Valley Mall gunman, has reached the end of his appeals.

    The state’s highest court won’t hear an appeal by the Saugerties man who went on a 2005 shooting spree inside the Hudson Valley Mall, effectively ending any chance Robert Bonelli Jr. had of reducing his 32-year sentence.

    In a prepared statement issued Monday, Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said the Court of Appeals denial “marks the end of Bonelli’s appellate rights in New York state courts.”

    Bonelli, 27, had sought permission to appeal his sentence to the Court of Appeals, after the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court, Third Department, in June ruled it could find no compelling reason to reduce the sentence meted out by state Supreme Court Justice Michael Kavanagh.

    Bonelli pleaded guilty in March 2006 to 18 counts of assault, reckless endangerment, criminal use of a firearm, possession of a weapon and criminal mischief and was sentenced two years later to 32 years in state prison.

    He immediately appealed his sentence, claiming his attorney, Ulster County Public Defender Andrew Kossover, was ineffective and that the sentence handed down by Kavanagh was incorrect and excessive.

    The appellate court rejected Bonelli’s argument, ruling Kavanagh acted properly in imposing consecutive, rather than concurrent sentences on the assault and criminal use of a firearm charges because the crimes were committed through “separate and distinct acts.”

    If you remember Bonelli also had a Columbine “fascination”. (i.e. he’s a mutant) I guess you won’t see daylight Bobby until 2043 like the good little CHUD you are.

  • Bonelli conviction upheld

    State upholds Bonelli conviction:

    Robert Bonelli Jr. was sentenced to 32 years for shooting up the Hudson Valley Mall in Ulster, New York and wounding two. After his arrest “Columbine memorabilia” was found in his house, i.e. he’s a mutant.

    The Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court upheld Bonelli’s conviction. Bonelli claimed that his public defender provided an inadequate defense.

    You know it’s hard to provide a defense when you’re caught shooting up a shopping mall.

  • Robert Bonelli sentenced

    Robert Bonelli sentenced

    BONELLI GETS 32 YEARS IN PRISON FOR MALL SHOOTING:

    Robert Bonelli, the 26-year-old Columbine obsessed Upstate New York mall gunman, was sentenced yesterday…

    KINGSTON – Hudson Valley Mall gunman Robert Bonelli Jr. was sentenced on Friday to 32 years in state prison, the maximum allowed under the guilty plea he entered in March.

    State Sup-reme Court Justice Mich-ael Kavanagh handed down the sentence after Bonelli’s father tearfully pleaded for mercy and after a security camera video showing the shooting spree’s first moments was shown in court.

    The judge said Bonelli was “truly a disturbed, troubled man” but that the defendant clearly knew what he was doing when he opened fire in the mall on Feb. 13, 2005.

    “You had to know that you … placed lives in grave danger,” Kavanagh told the 26-year-old defendant, who was clad in orange jail garb. “You simply did not care what the consequences were when you fired that weapon.

    “What happened here was horrendous,” the judge said.

    BONELLI apologized during Friday’s court proceeding, which the two victims, Thomas Haire of Pine Plains and Stephen Silk of Kingston, attended.

    “I’m sorry that all this happened. This is not the kind of person that I am,” Bonelli said.

    Bonelli asked to address Haire directly, but Kavanagh said no.

    HAIRE, a 20-year-old National Guardsman who was manning a recruiting table at the mall on the day of the shooting spree, read from a prepared statement in court.

    “I wish there were mall security to protect us from Mr. Bonelli and to inform us of his whereabouts and what to do,” said Haire, who suffered a serious leg injury in the shooting. “I just don’t think he should have gotten as far as he did. But he did.”

    BONELLI’S attorney, Ulster County Public Defender Andrew Kossover, described his client as a man wracked with low self-esteem and deep depression and twisted by years of alcohol and drug abuse.

    All of those things taken together created a “perfect storm,” Kossover said.

    Bonelli, who lived in Glasco at the time of the shooting, said in court that he felt everyone was against him and that his life was doomed in the time leading up to the shooting spree. He also said he “should have got help” long ago for his substance abuse problem.

    “I just hope that this court forgives me for what I have done,” Bonelli said.

    “This man’s judgment was not impaired,” Williams said.

    To make his point, Williams read aloud a journal entry that Bonelli made in 2004: “The wolf within is crawling out of my skin. … The only one who can stop me is me. … I will kill as many as fate allows. … Hate is a terrible thing to waste.”

    Williams also quoted from a note found in Bonelli’s vehicle after the shooting: “The lonely man strikes with absolute rage.”

    Bonelli’s defenders, including psychiatrist Dr. Steven Price, noted that some of Bonelli’s writings merely were taken from song lyrics.

    BONELLI has said he tried to commit suicide in the hours before the mall shooting but couldn’t bring himself to do it. So he decided to open fire at the mall, he said, figuring he’d be killed by police – a practice commonly referred to a “suicide by cop.”

    Williams said that didn’t make sense because there typically are no armed police officers in a shopping mall.

    The prosecutor also noted that materials found in Bonelli’s home after the shooting indicated he had a “perverse” interest in the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Colorado.

    Paul Fowler, a family friend, said the sentence was unjust.

    “This was a case where the court system failed,” Fowler said. “What it failed to do is to look at other aspects of this case.”

    Silk, who suffered superficial wounds in the shooting spree, said the sentence was correct.

    “He got the maximum, and that is just what he deserved,” Silk said.

    THE 32-YEAR sentence comprises concurrent 25-year terms for two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of criminal use of a firearm, and a seven-year term for one-count of second-degree assault.

    Bonelli also was sentenced for several less-serious counts. Those sentences will be included in the 32-year term. Bonelli will be eligible for parole in 26 years.

    Unjust? No. An unjust sentence would have been if no consequences came to a man who shot two people in a mall shooting spree.

  • Bonelli pleads guilty

    Bonelli pleads guilty

    Bonelli pleads guilty to all counts in mall rampage:
    Bonelli pleads guilty in mall shooting spree:

    I haven’t talked about Robert Bonelli in a really long time. He was the 24-year-old gunman in the Hudson Valley Mall shooting in Ulster, New York that wounded two people. When his home was searched, police found what they called “Columbine Memorabilia”. Bonelli pleaded guilty today to all charges against him…

    In entering his plea, Bonelli said that he had gone to the mall with the intention of committing “suicide by cop,” hoping to get killed by police officers.

    Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said Bonelli’s handwritten notes showed that he’d planned for months to conduct an armed rampage no later than April 20 of last year.

    Williams also maintained Bonelli had a lurid fascination with the shootings in Columbine.

    Personally, I don’t buy the “suicide by cop” theory. I think he luckily lost his nerve by the time he got to the mall, but I think his original intention was to kill.

    Between his fascination with Columbine and the fact that he planned for months to conduct some kind of assault with an April 20th deadline lead me to believe that his original intention was to kill as many people as possible.

    Anyway, he’s looking at a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 40.

    Sentencing is set for May 19th.

  • Return of the Mutant Rabbit

    Return of the Mutant Rabbit

    Not too long ago, I did an entry about how the New York mall shooter who was allegedly partially inspired by a rapper who promotes violence against the “ruling class” by the name of Dead Rabbit. Mr. Rabbit claimed that he was saddened that innocent people were hurt. I said, “yeah right” and said that Mr. Rabbit is using this tragedy to further his own career. Then I asked if he would have changed his tune if people had died in the incident. Well, I received a response from someone claiming to be Mr. Rabbit…

    No, I wouldn’t have changed my tune if somebody died. It still would have went something like this. “do doo do dooe wop”

    See, some people can accomplish more in life than learning a little html, getting some fellow geeks to comment on “news items” and calling it a collective.

    I only regret that you took the noble symbol of the Columbine uprising, the trenchcoat, and turned it into a coward’s cape

    Comment by Dead Rabbit — Monday Mar 7, 2005 @ 6:01 pm

    Rather than engage in a pointless flame war with you, I’ll just leave your comment as is so the rest of the world can marvel at your ignorance.

  • More on the Mall Shooter

    More on the Mall Shooter

    Mall shooting suspect wanted to die, uncle says:

    The uncle and father of mall shooter Robert Bonelli Jr. dispute that he was obsessed with Columbine…

    “This had nothing to do with skinheads, it had nothing to do with Nazism, it had nothing to do with Columbine,” said the uncle, a Lake Katrine resident. “It had to do with something that they don’t even know about. … It didn’t drive him to go kill somebody. It drove him to have himself killed by law enforcement. …

    They also put out a dangerous opinion…

    Robert Sr. said his son had Columbine-related materials only because he related to the shooters, who also were outcasts.

    “I would not call it a fascination, but it was like a common personality, where they were picked on and ridiculed,”.

    Relating to mass murderers and sharing a common personality is not a good thing. If more of these “fascinations” are allowed to be tolerated or dismissed by family and friends, the more occurrences of these incidents will arise. And maybe next time the outcome won’t be so fortunate.

  • Mutant Rabbit

    Mutant Rabbit

    Police Say Rapper Inspired Shootings:

    This is the first I’ve heard of this, but according to this “source” police found bootleg copies of underground rap artist Dead Rabbit’s hit underground song, “Casa Rebel.”

    According to the “article”, the “song” “Casa Rebel” is a vivid description of a Columbine-like massacre. Who knew that rappers could be mutants? Here’s a description of the alleged “artist”…

    Dead Rabbit’s music often describes violence as a form of protest. From killing preppie students to bombing a popular “yuppie” nightspot in Sacramento, CA, Dead Rabbit promotes the destruction of the “1 percent”; a slang term for the ruling class.

    Well, isn’t that special. No hidden meanings there, I guess. The “artist” also released a statement on his website…

    “While we are saddened that innocent people have been hurt by Bonelli, the reason by the shooting must be fully explored. Whether it was a random action or a political statement must be discovered. If he was truly inspired by our music, then neither his aim nor location (of the shooting) should be in doubt.”

    Saddened. Right. This guy is probably ecstatic that one of his songs was found on a would be killer. Now he’s using this near tragedy to try to further his own “career” and agenda. I wonder if he would have changed his tune if someone had actually died.

    Silly rabbit. Tricks are for kids.

  • More Mall Mutant

    More Mall Mutant

    Just some more news tidbits about Robert Bonelli, the New York State mall shooter.

    According to the Albany Times Union, when Bonelli was questioned by police he said that if he didn’t go to the mall on Sunday he would have gone to a school on Monday. No word on which school he would have gone to.

    The New York Post states that Bonelli dropped out of school at the age of 16. No word on why he dropped out.

    So let’s put the timeline in perspective. He drops out at age 16 for whatever reason, becomes obsessed with Columbine at age 19, then 6 years later, shoots up the local mall.

    It will be interesting if the true motive is ever revealed.

  • More Arrests in Mall Shooting

    More Arrests in Mall Shooting

    More arrests made in connection with mall shooting:

    Police have arrested two more people in connection with the New York State mall shooting. Kenneth Stine and Liborio Valguarnera, both 25, were arrested Monday night for violating federal explosive laws…

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the two were holding onto an arsenal of weapons, as well as information and videos on how to build pipe bombs. It seems police spotted the two men on a videotape found in Bonelli’s house. All three were seen making and detonating pipe bombs.

    No word yet on whether or not these two are mutants too, but I wouldn’t lay odds against it.

    UPDATE: According to this Newsday article, the ATF found nine long guns, a handgun, ammunition, and a pipe bomb fuse were found at Stine’s house.

  • Mall gunman, mutant

    Mall gunman, mutant

    DA: Suspected mall gunman was fascinated with the Columbine massacre:

    (Log in info) Well, this is an interesting turn of events. It turns out that the gunman who opened fire in the Hudson Valley Mall in New York is, in fact, a mutant.

    Robert Bonelli, 24, wounded two people in the mall, including a National Guard recruiter who may lose his leg. Bonelli faces 25 years. Police found a cache of what they call “Columbine memorabilia” in the house that he shares with his father…

    “We may never know specifically what his intentions were, or what his motivations were,” Williams said. “However, we are deeply disturbed and troubled by the recovery of Columbine memorabilia from his property.”

    It will be interesting to see what motive, if any, comes out of this.