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Nicolas Coirazza struck a deal with prosecutors that still resulted in a 50-year state prison sentence on Friday, Feb. 18 for the brutal slaying and desecration of Divna Roasaco in June 2020.
Coirazza initially rejected a 45-year plea offer from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and appeared ready to go to trial in Superior Court in Hackensack. Then he had a change of heart.
At that point, prosecutors had increased the offer to 50 years, 85% of which must be served before he'll be eligible for parole.
Coirazza took the deal, pleading to murder, desecration of human remains and enlisting a juvenile in a crime.
Roasaco, 51, must have been terrified as Coirazza began stabbing her after springing from a closet at her home, Superior Court Judge Carol Novey Catuogno said during the sentencing hearing on Friday, Feb. 17, in Hackensack.
Coirazza somehow was "devoid of emotion" when detectives interrogated him after the murder, the judge added.
Coirazza had gotten Rosasco’s 14-year-old daughter to participate in what investigators told Daily Voice at the time was a bungled attempt to dump the body in Overpeck Creek in Teaneck.
A Bergen County sheriff's officer on patrol in Overpeck Park found Rosasco's SUV (see photo below) parked near the boat ramp. Next to it was blood and debris, authorities said at the time.
The license plate was bent, apparently by someone's attempt to remove it, they added.
Soon after, a Bergen County Sheriff's K-9 unit led officers to the victim's body, found in about four feet of water off the dock.
The body was bound in duct tape, wrapped in a bedsheet with a plastic bag around the head, and weighted down with a five-pound bucket filled with items that included chunks of concrete and kitty litter.
Rosasco had been stabbed and slashed 55 times – nearly three dozen of those in the head. Her throat had been slashed, authorities said.
A short time later, an officer at a nearby hotel parking lot stopped an Uber that Coirazza and the juvenile tried to leave in.
Defense attorney Ron Bar-Nadav told the judge on Friday that Coirazza had been “terrorized” by her mother and that his client was trying to protect her.
It was actually her parents who were trying to protect the girl from him, prosecutors countered.
Rosasco’s husband, Victor, had called Divna “a beautiful person inside and out with a passion for art, food, photography and gardening."
She was also a mother who "loved spending time with her family and always wanted the best for our daughter, Victoria,” he wrote in tribute.
Victor Rosasco had believed that Coirazza had groomed their daughter for sex, but investigators “found no evidence of this,” a detective told Daily Voice following the killing.
SEE: No Proof Lodi Man Charged With Cresskill Mom Murder Tried Recruiting Girl For Sex, Authorities Say
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Meredith Kunz noted, however, that the couple went through their daughter’s phone and found video of Coirazza masturbating and images of him with the girl.
Instead of going straight to the police, the Rosascos told Coirazza directly to stay away from their daughter.
He ignored them, however, and was in the house when Divna returned on the fateful day.
Mother and daughter argued that morning. Coirazza grabbed a knife, hid in a closet and suddenly emerged, pushing Rosaco down the stairs, Kunz said.
Details of the frenzied attack that followed are too gruesome to mention.
Coirazza apologized during Friday’s sentencing hearing. His father and sister spoke on his behalf. Letters from others were read.
Then widower Victor Rosasco spoke.
He called Coirazza a “child rapist and murderer,” said his wife’s death “left a hole in my life that can never be filled,” and told the killer to “go to hell.”
Bar-Nadav said he would appeal.
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