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Thomas Battinelli, 56, maintained the same tight-lipped expression he had throughout the trial, as well as when he was convicted by jurors in May of murdering Michael Murphy, also 56, of Montvale. The jury also found him guilty of criminal weapons possession, theft and hindering apprehension.
Under the sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Donald Venezia, Battinelli technically wouldn’t be eligible for parole for 63¾ years. He also ordered him to pay $58,000 in restitution that he said Murphy had caught Battinelli stealing.
“You killed him because you were ‘southing’ the money,” Venezia told him. “There was a hole in the bottom of the basket, and you were on the other end.”
“Michael Murphy’s life ended Jan. 6, 2010,” the judge said during a 20-minute sentencing address. “Yours ends today, Aug. 21, 2013.
“Mr. Murphy’s at peace. You’re in torment. If it doesn’t bother you, you’re even less of a man than I think you are.”
As images of Murphy with his children were shown on a screen, Venezia (photo, right) asked Battinelli three separate times whether he wanted to say anything on his own behalf. Each time, he refused.
Defense attorney Brian Neary said Battinelli “persists that he is innocent of these crimes.”
Murphy’s three oldest children spoke (right), as did his wife, Theresa, who said that no longer having her best friend is “a life without the possibility of parole.”
“Thomas Battinelli took my father away from me,” added their daughter, Kaitlin. “He should never breathe a free breath of air again, ever, because my father never will.”
Justin Wilson described a loving adoptive father who created a family life full of joy and good examples.
“He adopted me, Justin and Kaitlin, taking on the financial and family responsibility of three children,” he said. “Who does that in this day and age?
“He was always preparing me for life. He told me, ‘You have to save money for your wife and children.’ And at 14, I thought ‘What in the heck is he talking about?’” Wilson said. “But at 30, and on the cusp of marriage, the lesson has been learned.”
Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer (above, right) portrayed Battinelli during the trial as a “cold, calculating” hunter who killed Murphy, his partner of 20 years, with a .22-caliber rifle in their G&M Wholesale Flowers shop on Midland Avenue in January 2010.
Murphy was on the verge of discovering that Battinelli had stolen $81,883 from him — in part, by taking payments in cash — when he was killed, she said.
Neary insisted authorities rushed to judgment and got the wrong man — and pointed instead to one of their drivers.
A delivery man for the business found Murphy’s body on Jan. 6, 2010 and “literally ran across Midland Avenue to Garfield Police headquarters across the street,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.
Neary told the jurors that the driver had immigration issues and was in hot water with Murphy for a series of flat tires. Murphy had questioned him about the flats that morning before he left to take a delivery to Glen Rock, he noted.
Battinelli not only had “motive, means and opportunity” — he was the only person left in the building with Murphy when the driver and another left that morning, Grootenboer countered. After the shooting, she said, Battinelli drove across town to the City Hall on a “non-emergency errand” to buy parking passes, she said.
“By his own admission, Thomas Battinelli was the last person to see Michael Murphy,” the prosecutor said. “It didn’t take long for Battinelli, an experienced hunter, to kill his unsuspecting friend.”
A Garfield police dispatcher later testified that Battinelli was still at the City Hall when they called him to report that Murphy had been found dead.
The murder weapon was found in the walk-in refrigerator at G&M under a pile of decorative branches, Grootenboer said.
Battinelli bought the Browning .22 lever-action rifle at Ramsey Outdoor, she told jurors.
When a Garfield police sergeant found it, she said, “the trigger was in the locked back position indicating it had been fired. It had one spent .22 caliber shell casing inside, and one .22 caliber bullet.
“The bullet had a “B” stamp on the bottom of it. On January 6, 2010 when investigators searched Thomas Battinelli’s house, they found the same ammunition there.”
Subsequent testing turned up Battinelli’s right, middle fingerprint on the gun.
During his closing arguments, Neary (left) told jurors: “The fact it is Tom Battinelli’s gun and fingerprints isn’t proof.”
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia
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