With murder conviction overturned, man may be paroled

A Valley Stream man serving 25 years to life for killing a man and burying him in the backyard of a Patchogue house may be paroled after just 10 years after a federal judge overturned his conviction on a depraved-indifference murder charge.

Mark Petronio, 39, who pleaded guilty Friday in Nassau County Court to second-degree manslaughter, was originally acquitted of intentional murder but convicted of depraved-indifference murder in the killing of Jeffrey Walter, 23, of Roslyn in 2000.

Since Petronio's trial in 2002, however, the state's highest court ruled that prosecutors across the state had been effectively hedging their bets by routinely charging murder under those two conflicting theories. The state Court of Appeals said depraved-indifference murder should no longer be charged in cases where one person clearly meant to harm another - as prosecutors held in Petronio's case.

Petronio's conviction was overturned in a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt, who cited the state Court of Appeals ruling.

Prosecutors could not retry Petronio on intentional-murder charges because the double-jeopardy rule applies. Rather than appealing Spatt's decision, Nassau prosecutors chose to allow Petronio to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Because he already has served nearly 10 years of a sentence that could range from 4 years and 9 months to 14 years and 3 months, Petronio will be eligible for parole almost immediately, said his lawyer, Kevin Keating, of Garden City.

Jeffrey Walter's mother, Gail DiGuglielmo, said Friday morning in court that while she consented to Petronio's guilty plea to manslaughter, she was unhappy with the outcome.

"Mr. Petronio may have been in jail 10 years, but that's 15 years too little," she told acting State Supreme Court Justice William Donnino. "To my family, this is a complete betrayal of what the court system was supposed to accomplish."

Prosecutor Tammy Smiley, chief of the Nassau district attorney's appeals bureau, said in court that her office weighed the risk of appealing the Spatt's ruling against accepting Petronio's plea.

"The people have reluctantly concluded that this disposition brings finality and certainty to the case, as compared to the uncertainty and risks attendant with pursuing an appeal," she said.

During his trial, Petronio testified that he had arranged to buy Ecstasy pills from Walter. During the exchange of drugs for money at Petronio's Valley Stream house, Petronio said, a disagreement over the number of Ecstasy pills and their quality led Walter to attack him.

In a fit of rage, Petronio sprayed Mace onto Walter's face, then slammed his head on the concrete floor and stomped on his neck, prosecutors said at the time. Petronio bound and gagged Walter before stuffing his body in a large garbage bin, they said. He eventually buried the body in the backyard of an unoccupied house he owned in Patchogue, and soon after built a concrete patio over the grave, prosecutors said.

Petronio declined to speak as he was sentenced Friday. When he was sentenced in 2002, he apologized to Walter's family but maintained he killed Walter because he feared Walter was going to hurt him.