The underlying tensions that filled a Riverhead courtroom during John White’s eight-week trial ignited Wednesday when a Suffolk County Court judge sentenced the Miller Place man to 2 to 4 years in prison for fatally shooting a Selden teen in the face a year and a half ago.
Saying she believed that White was a “decent man” who was not the only one to blame for Daniel Cicciaro Jr.’s death, Judge Barbara Kahn imposed a sentence that was less than the one she offered White in a plea deal before the trial. He was found guilty in December of second-degree manslaughter for killing Cicciaro, 17, in a confrontation in the middle of the night at the foot of White’s Miller Place driveway in August 2006.
The sentence stunned a courtroom filled on one side with Cicciaro’s mostly white supporters and on the other with White’s mostly black ones, including members of the Fruit of Islam and other activist groups. Another 100 who sought to be spectators were turned away.
Although he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs, White is expected to be released Thursday after a Brooklyn appellate court ruled Wednesday that he could remain free on $200,000 cash bail while his appeal is pending. His attorney Paul Gianelli of Hauppauge, said one of the issues addressed in the appeal involves Kahn’s instructions to the jury. Defense attorneys have also said that Kahn pressured jurors by forcing them to deliberate the weekend before Christmas.
The sentence drove the victim’s relatives and supporters into a rage outside the Riverhead courtroom, which was kept under control by 20 armed security officers. Minutes later, Cicciaro angrily shouted above the sobs of supporters as he gave an expletive-laden public address that condemned Kahn and all of Suffolk County as “corrupt.”
“There’s no way in God’s creation she did that on her own. There was pressure behind that court door,” Cicciaro said. “John White murdered my son. He knows he did it, and obviously, the justice system is not going to punish him.”
Kahn acknowledged that she had received more than 100 letters asking for leniency for White, including one from Suffolk Executive Steve Levy’s African-American Advisory Board. Levy said he was not aware that the letter was sent, and Wednesday called the case “a very complex and emotional one.”
Before Kahn announced her sentence, she heard from Cicciaro’s parents, who spoke for about 45 minutes, emotionally calling for Kahn to impose the maximum sentence. They blasted White and his defense team as “racists” for making skin color the focus of the case.
“I believe John White is a time bomb that went off when he killed my son,” Joanne Cicciaro said as she read through a stack of pages she had prepared. “This man was waiting … ready to kill anyone who came to the edge of his property. And he taught his son the same thing.”
White stood erect when the Cicciaros began their statements, but his head slumped as they tore into him.
When he got an opportunity to speak, he did so in a near whisper. “I’ve always remained remorseful about this incident,” White said. “I regret taking his life. I didn’t mean to.”
Almost as soon as Kahn began explaining her sentence, the Cicciaros appeared to deflate. Cicciaro put his hand on his head and Joanne Cicciaro scowled.
Kahn said that despite their cries for the maximum, there was no room for vengeance in her sentence. She said she was struck by several witnesses’ “minimization of their own actions on the night in question.” Witnesses included the four teens who accompanied Cicciaro to White’s home, and the Sound Beach mother who hosted a party at which Cicciaro got drunk earlier that night. “These individuals did not hold the gun, but each had a part in this young man’s death,” Kahn said, calling them “moral accessories” to the crime.
You will be flabbergasted to see the father of Daniel Cicciaro threatening John White’s son’s life. The son’s name is Aaron. That family needs to get out of New York.