Merrick man sentenced in boy's stabbing

The mother of a now 9-year-old boy stabbed at a Westbury restaurant told a judge "my child has forever changed" as her son's attacker was sentenced to 14 years in prison Thursday in Nassau County Court.

Evan Sachs, 24, admitted that he went to Dave & Buster's on Oct. 8, 2010, with the intention of finding a little boy and killing him when he pleaded guilty in July to second-degree attempted murder and second-degree attempted assault.

Prosecutors said Sachs, of Merrick, stabbed the boy, who has since recovered from his physical injuries, five times in the back with a hunting knife while he played video games just feet away from his parents.

"Since this has happened, he is a shell of himself," Lisa DalFonso, the boy's mother, told Nassau Court Judge Jerald Carter, describing how her happy, spirited boy became incessantly fearful and suspicious after the attack.

DalFonso, who used her maiden name to protect her son's identity, said in court that the boy won't go to birthday parties or public places, and looks over his shoulder "1,000 times a day." When strangers get too close to him "his little body shuts down," she said.

At night, DalFonso said, he checks the locks on the doors of his house, and asks " 'Will I be safe? Is the bad man still in jail? Will he do this to me again?' "

"My son is not happy," a weeping DalFonso said. "But hopefully one day he will be again."

In court Sachs apologized, telling the judge, "I regretted my actions immediately, and I still do."

Carter seized on Sachs' regret as he imposed the sentence. "He knew right from wrong, and he listened not to his better angels, but to his demons," Carter said.

Mitch Benson, who heads the Major Offense Bureau for the Nassau district attorney's office, asked Carter for a 25-year sentence, noting that Sachs had painstakingly planned the attack.

But Sachs' lawyer, Michael Soshnick, of Mineola, sought a 7-year sentence, saying Sachs' violence was brought about by a drug he was given to treat his mental illness.

"My client is not a horrible man, he is a man afflicted with a mental illness," Soshnick said. Carter said, in deciding on the sentence, he wanted to make sure Sachs would be in prison long enough so that when he is released the boy will be an adult.

Carter asked DalFonso about his favorite sports star.

DalFonso said while her son loves karate, his favorite athlete is Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. "You tell your son that when this man hits the streets, he will be as big as Derek Jeter," Carter told DalFonso. "And if he continues with his karate, he'll have nothing to worry about."