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Sui Kam “Tony” Tung, 60, now has whatever’s left of his life to spend with whatever feelings he has following his sentencing Friday in Hackensack.
This past July, jurors in that same courtroom convicted Tung of murdering Cantor, with whom his wife had been having an affair, in March of 2011.
Superior Court Judge Christopher Kazlau said he’d seen enough of Tung to not be surprised by his refusal to speak when given the opportunity before sentencing him to life behind bars on Nov. 3.
Any thoughts Tung has will go with him to state prison, he said.
"What I want you to think about is not only your conduct for the remainder of your life,” the judge told Tung. “You can think about if you ever get the opportunity to talk to your children, how someone involved with the PTA, who used to cook for his children and take them to school, would be so consumed by evil that you would do what you have done.”
Tung destroyed the lives of his three daughters as well as those of Cantor’s loved ones, Kazlau told him.
"You think that was justified or worth it?” he asked.
Tung entered Cantor's Elm Avenue home sometime between 10:30 p.m. March 5 and 1 a.m. the next day, prosecutors said. It was mere days after Tung's soon-to-be ex-wife served him with divorce papers.
Tung led his 59-year-old rival to a basement bedroom where Cantor had slept with her, then shot him in the back of the head with a .380-caliber revolver, jurors were told.
Tung then put the corpse on the bed, doused it with an accelerant and set it on fire, the prosecutors said. He also ignited the bed itself, the bedroom and the house before fleeing, they added.
Teaneck firefighters who doused the blaze found Cantor's remains and alerted police.
A previous jury found Tung guilty in 2016 of killing Cantor, but a state appeals court overturned the conviction and sent the case back to Bergen County for a retrial.
The appeals judges focused on what they considered inappropriate testimony by a detective for the prosecution.
The panel also said prosecutors erred in making “repeated references” during the trial to Tung saying that he wanted a lawyer and refusing to allow non-warranted searches of his car and computer -- rights that the appeals judges said the U.S. Constitution guarantees.
Back in court this summer, defense attorney Ian Silvera insisted that his client was innocent, telling jurors during the eight-week trial that prosecutors didn't produce any eyewitnesses or direct physical evidence.
The jurors weren’t swayed. Assistant Bergen County Prosecutors David Malfitano and Joseph Torre convinced them that Tung was guilty of murder, arson, evidence tampering, weapons charges, stalking and desecration of a human body.
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Those who did speak at Friday’s sentencing included Cantor’s sister, Leslie Padron, who called her brother an “amazing” human being while noting that no one showed up in court to support Tung during either trial.
Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella later praised the “zealous advocacy” of Malfitano and Torre for Cantor’s family and his memory. He also commended the work of detectives in his Major Crimes Unit and Teaneck police for their “skill and professionalism.”
Stewart, meanwhile, said that he intends to appeal the verdict once again in hopes of getting a third crack at the case.
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