Copiague man says before sentencing he wasn't sorry over fatal shooting

Just before he was sentenced, a Copiague man said Monday in a Riverhead courtroom that the man he killed deserved to die and he wasn't sorry that he did it.

"I'm not going to sit here and be remorseful," said John Steele, 30, who pleaded guilty in August to shooting Eric Brooks, 35, in May 2012 in Wyandanch. "He had a gun, too. If he pulled first, I'd be lying in a casket."

The statement met with disbelief from state Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro and outrage from Brooks' relatives, several of whom yelled obscenities at Steele. Ambro told the family members to be quiet.

"You can't just bark out in a courtroom," he told them, then turned to Steele.

"I don't believe you, Mr. Steele," Ambro said, adding that if there were any truth to his story, he could have gone to trial and argued that he shot Brooks in self-defense. Ambro sentenced him to 25 years in prison, the maximum for first-degree manslaughter.

Steele and Boyd Holland, 23, lay in wait for Brooks, who had just gotten out of prison on a drug conviction. They shot him at least seven times when he came out of a friend's house to make a phone call.

Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock said Steele's argument was absurd. No gun was recovered at the scene, he said, and the two men waited to ambush Brooks. Kurtzrock said if Steele was worried about Brooks shooting him, he shouldn't have gone looking for him.

A family member read a letter from Brooks' mother, Bertha White, in which she quoted a verse from Romans 12 from the Bible: "Be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' "

White wrote further, "My prayer is that God has mercy upon your soul."

It was then that Steele said he wasn't sorry.

As Steele was led from the courtroom after Ambro imposed the sentence, a family member of Brooks called out to him, "Your body's going to be shipped back in a bag."