3rd life sentence in Commack murder-for-hire

A Queens man Tuesday became the third person sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2008 murder-for-hire of Nesconset attorney James DiMartino.

Donovan Raysor, 23, of St. Albans, was sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs after DiMartino's widow, Diane, displayed family photographs in court.

"That's our family that will never be," she said, gesturing toward pictures of herself and her husband with the couple's four daughters. "We are serving a sentence of life without parole. Why should Donovan Raysor get any less?"

Before he was sentenced, Raysor said he would "try to make myself right with God.

"I've lost my family," he said. "I know I did wrong."

Raysor was convicted last month of first-degree murder and second-degree conspiracy in connection with the shooting death of James DiMartino, 44, in a Commack parking lot on Oct. 20, 2008.

Prosecutors said DiMartino's business partner, Ronald Thornton, 40, of Nesconset, paid Raysor and two others a total of $10,000 to kill DiMartino. Thornton and Darnell Festus, 25, of Queens, who prosecutors said fired the shot that killed DiMartino, are serving life sentences without parole.

Raysor's ex-girlfriend, Monique Randall, of St. Albans, pleaded guilty in November 2008 to second-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing.

Hinrichs said Raysor showed a "lack of respect" for human life. "It is very clear that this murder-for-hire would not have occurred but for the defendant's greed," Hinrichs said.

Raysor's attorney, Michael Brown, said Raysor was "the least culpable" of the four charged.