Illinois man's murder sentence raised to 65 years in retrial
URBANA, Ill. (AP) - An eastern Illinois man has been retried and resentenced to 65 years in prison - 30 years more than he originally received - for shooting his brother to death in 2010.
Brian Maggio, 46, of Savoy was resentenced Wednesday in Champaign County in the death of Mark Maggio, 32, the (Champaign) News-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1B7Zjn0 ). Authorities said he shot his brother at a grocery store they owned in Tolono as part of a long-running feud.
Maggio pleaded guilty in 2011 and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. But Maggio claimed on appeal that his sentence was too little, arguing that it didn't include a sentence enhancement for firing a gun. It was a ploy to get his case reheard in hopes of a lesser sentence.
The case came back to Champaign County for trial, and a jury found Maggio guilty after more than five hours of deliberations. Judge Heidi Ladd on Wednesday sentenced him to 65 years.
Maggio has claimed he shot his brother in self-defense.
"I am very sorry for what has happened. I felt it was self-defense at the time, and I still do now," Maggio said Wednesday.
Ladd said there wasn't evidence of self-defense, "not even misconstrued self-defense."
"Every day people suffer from family problems, adversarial relationships, financial stresses. It's called life," Ladd said.
Randy Rosenbaum, a public defender who represented Maggio, had asked Ladd for a minimum 45-year sentence, saying Maggio "just snapped."
Prosecutors wanted 65 years.
"This is an event that never needed to come close to happening," First Assistant State's Attorney Steve Ziegler said. "I do not believe this was purely a snap decision on Brian Maggio's part."
Mark Maggio's widow, Tara Stromberg, read a statement aloud at the sentencing Wednesday, describing how she experienced nightmares and had difficulty eating after her husband's death.
"Brian robbed my girls of a lifetime of memories and love with their father," said Stromberg, who has daughters ages 7 and 5. "They will only know their father from stories, not from personal experiences they shared with their dad."
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Information from: The News-Gazette, http://www.news-gazette.com