25-to-life in 1986 Woodmere killing

A widow's wish that her husband's killer never be free again may come true after a Nassau County judge sentenced Lewis Slaughter to 25 years to life in prison for taking part in the September 1986 robbery and killing of Samuel Quentzel, 54, of Woodmere.

"Lewis Slaughter should never be able to see the light of day outside of prison," said Ann Quentzel, delivering a victim impact statement before Judge James P. McCormack sentenced Slaughter in a Mineola courtroom Thursday. "I beg the court to give the maximum penalty that is deserved in this case."

Slaughter, 61, is already serving a 25-years-to-life sentence upstate in Woodbourne Correctional Facility for a murder that took place a month after Quentzel's death. Thursday's sentence will run consecutively to the current sentence, handed down in late 1987.

Thursday marked the closing of a case that had gone unresolved for more than two decades as police encountered dead ends in their search for Quentzel's killer.

"One can only imagine the torment and stress of 24 years of pain and suffering," Ann Quentzel said. "Thinking about each surreal moment in the days following Sam's death, knowing that there were murderers out there, and fearing for my life and that of my children, I never allowed his death to go unanswered."

Samuel Quentzel, who ran a family-owned plumbing business in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, was shot to death outside his home.

Police recovered the getaway van, which contained cigarette butts. Advances in DNA analysis and new laws requiring convicted felons to provide DNA samples for the state's database allowed detectives, led by Nassau's Det. James Hendry, to trace organic material on the cigarettes in 2008 to a man named Roger Williams. Hendry was assigned to the case after Ann Quentzel contacted Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice in May 2007 to ask if the case could be reopened.

Police arranged for Slaughter and Williams to have an incriminating conversation that was taped by detectives, which solidified the case. A third man who was the shooter, Clifton Waters, has since died. Williams pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing. Slaughter was convicted of second-degree murder Oct. 26.

"Today's sentencing is the culmination of more than 24 years of wishing, hoping and believing by Samuel Quentzel's family that his killers would one day be brought to justice," Rice said.