KILLER SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR
MANSLAUGHTER OVER THE OBJECTION OF’THE PEOPLE’ WHO
RECOMMENDED TWENTY YEARS IMPRISONMENT

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a Bronx man was sentenced to only six years in prison for shooting a man to death even though ‘the People’ had urged State Supreme Court Justice David Stadtmauer to impose a sentence of 20 years in state prison.

Frank Santoro, 59, of 1633 Ohm Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty last February 2, 2008 to one count of Manslaughter in the 1st degree and one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd degree. Santoro abruptly pled guilty to the top count in the indictment in the middle of his trial in the death of Thomas Pennini, 54.

The crime occurred on July 11, 2002 when Pennini was shot and killed in front of a doctor’s office at 1803 Mahan Avenue in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. Pennini was gunned down while acting as a peacemaker in a street fight involving three women, one of whom was the defendant’s girlfriend. Santoro’s girlfriend called him during the altercation and when he arrived at the scene, Santoro pistol whipped Pennini with a .45 caliber handgun before pulling the trigger.

In recommending a sentence of 20 years imprisonment on the manslaughter charge and 15 years imprisonment on the gun charge, Assistant District Attorney Daniel McCarthy told Justice Stadtmauer that Pennini was an innocent man whom three eyewitnesses had described as a peacemaker. ADA McCarthy argued that after the fatal shooting, Santoro fled the scene leaving behind the people he claimed to have been defending. McCarthy described Santoro’s actions as “the actions of a killer and a coward.” The judge then imposed concurrent terms of 6 years imprisonment on the manslaughter charge and 3 ½ years on the gun charge.

This case was prosecuted by Chief Trial Assistant District Attorney Dan McCarthy, Director of Trial Training.