Ex-exotic dancer gets 15-to-life in slay
Exotic dancer Monique Randall, 30, of St. Albans, Queens, testified against Thornton during his murder trial. Randall said Thornton hired her, her boyfriend and another man to kill his business partner. Randall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in DiMartino's death.
After admitting her role in the October 2008 murder-for-hire of Nesconset attorney James DiMartino, Monique Randall helped Suffolk prosecutors win the convictions of three men charged in connection with the plot.
That did not matter Wednesday to DiMartino's family, which lambasted the former exotic dancer in Suffolk County Court before she was sentenced to prison.
To DiMartino's family, Randall, 31, of St. Albans, Queens, could have stopped the fatal shooting of DiMartino, 44, on Oct. 20, 2008, in a Commack parking lot.
"You didn't do the right thing when you had a chance to do it," DiMartino's father, Joseph, said to Randall in court. "You're just as guilty of pulling the trigger as the other three."
"Monique had the power to change the entire outcome of this case," said Donna DiMartino, the victim's sister. "She made the wrong choice."Randall was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison by State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs. Prosecutors arranged the sentence when Randall agreed to cooperate with them and pleaded guilty in November 2008 to second-degree murder.
Randall last year testified in three trials of her former co-defendants in DiMartino's slaying. Each was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"I wish I could change everything. I wish I could take it back," Randall said before she was sentenced. "I'm so sorry."
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Clifford said Randall had given "complete and truthful" testimony and "lived up to her obligations" under the plea bargain. Hinrichs said the convictions of the other defendants "never would have been obtained" without Randall's testimony.
DiMartino was fatally shot as part of a plot hatched by Ronald Thornton, DiMartino's partner in a mortgage business. Prosecutors said Thornton, 40, also of Nesconset, paid Randall and two others a total of $10,000 to kill DiMartino. Prosecutors said Thornton had DiMartino killed to cover up mortgage fraud committed by Thornton.
One month after DiMartino was killed, Randall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. She testified at the trials last year of Thornton, Darnell Festus, 25, of Queens, and Donovan Raysor, 23, of St. Albans.
DiMartino's family members said they grudgingly accepted Randall's sentence. DiMartino's widow, Diane, said the sentence was "bittersweet."
"She looked remorseful," Diane DiMartino said after the sentencing. "I don't feel anything for her."
