Now-retired City of Tonawanda Police Detective David Ljiljanich still feels the physical effects of being shot multiple times in May 2020, said his wife, Monica Ljiljanich.
But his greatest wounds aren’t the visible ones.
Matthew R. Gerwitz, 31, has been accused of killing Joseph A. Marasco and trying to kill six City of Tonawanda police officers in two shootings described by prosecutors as "senseless, deliberate chaos."
David Ljiljanich suffered post-traumatic stress disorder to the degree that he retired early, so as not to be a liability to his colleagues.
Monica Ljiljanich couldn’t count how many times she’s had to wake up her husband, now a fitful sleeper, and assure him he was safe, she said Monday in a downtown courtroom.
For all the difficulties Matthew R. Gerwitz caused so many families, she told the judge, she said she wanted Gerwitz to never get out of prison.
The jury foreman read the 12 guilty counts against Matthew R. Gerwitz at about 4:20 p.m. after having deliberated since Tuesday morning.
“Freedom is a gift he cannot be trusted with,” she said.
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Erie County Judge Sheila DiTullio sentenced Gerwitz – convicted of the attempted murder of David Ljiljanich and five other City of Tonawanda police officers, as well as for the murder of Joseph A. Marasco – to 65 years to life in prison.
After roughly seven hours of deliberations, a jury convicted Gerwitz, 31, in September of the two shootings, as well as weapons charges tied to firearms, including “ghost guns” he assembled himself.
DiTullio sentenced Gerwitz to 25 years to life for his second-degree murder conviction and 40 years to life for the attempted murder of six police officers. She ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
DiTullio’s sentences on the weapons charges – 15 years for the two second-degree possession convictions and 2⅓ to 7 years for each of the three third-degree convictions – will run concurrently to the other sentences.
Matthew R. Gerwitz, 28, faces a slew of felony charges including murder and attempted murder.
Gerwitz’s spree of violence began on May 26, 2020, when Joseph A. Marasco, 32, walked by Gerwitz’s home on Morgan Street near Clinton Street. Gerwitz threatened him, Marasco’s friend testified on Sept. 15 when the trial opened. Marasco went back to the house and was yelling vulgarities at Gerwitz from outside when Gerwitz drove up and shot him.
As he was loaded into an ambulance, Marasco spoke to his mother on the phone, DiTullio said, citing a letter to the court from his sister.
He told her he’d been shot. He cried out in pain. He was begging not to be allowed to die.
He was able to tell his mother he loved her one last time, DiTullio said.
Marasco, a “gentle soul” who is survived by a 9-year-old daughter, “will not be forgotten,” the judge said.
Joseph Marasco was shot in the stomach while walking on a Tonawanda street with friends playing the smartphone video game Pokemon Go, according to an online fundraiser seeking
In the meantime, Gerwitz fled the area. But a few hours later as police were investigating outside, Gerwitz managed to sneak back to his home and then came down the stairs with an AR-style rifle and a box with three handguns.
He fired the rifle at police outside his home, and then at two other officers as he drove away from the scene.
DiTullio emphasized the problem of ghost guns, untraceable weapons able to be assembled at home from parts purchased online.
“Ghost guns are a clear and present danger to Western New York and society as a whole,” the judge said.
When it was his chance to speak, Gerwitz told the judge he had written a couple things down, but he didn’t know if he could read it.
DiTullio reiterated a couple times that he had a right to speak and offered him the opportunity, if there was anything he wanted to say.
Gerwitz eventually said, “Basically that I’m sorry that this happened.”
DiTullio also asked Gerwitz what he meant by the term he used for himself in an interview with police: “soldier for the people.”
“I thought of myself more like a security person,” Gerwitz said. “Not a slaughterer.”
“So you were a protector of the people?” the judge said.
Frank Bogulski, Gerwitz’s defense attorney, told the judge his client had a “tumultuous” childhood, including exposure to domestic violence and drug use. He asked the judge to issue a sentence that would give his client a chance to get out of prison.
DiTullio said that Gerwitz rejected a plea offer before trial that came with a sentencing commitment of 25 years to life in prison. He also was convicted in 2016 of attempted assault and was barred by an order of protection from having contact with a woman and two children, she said.
“I wish I could unravel difficult childhoods,” the judge said. “I don’t have the power, but I wish I could.”
The convictions on the homicide and shootings are being appealed, Bogulski said.
In a written statement, City of Tonawanda Police Capt. Kevin Ulmer said, “The six responding police officers will never forget the night that Joseph Marasco’s life was selfishly taken. It has been a long-awaited, emotional 3½ years, but justice has prevailed. We pray that this verdict, and this sentencing, will provided a sense of closure for Joseph’s friends and family, our officers and their families.”