A New Jersey judge sentenced a former elementary school teacher who murdered her estranged boyfriend, a retired Staten Island police officer, to 18 years in prison Wednesday, NJ.com reports.
A jury sentenced Virginia Vertetis to 30 years in prison in 2017 for shooting and killing Patrick Gilhuley at her Mount Olive, N.J., home on March 3, 2014. Authorities said Gilhuley told Vertetis he was breaking up with her.
Last August, a judge overturned a second 20-year sentence for Vertetis, 62, due to “aggravating factors in calculating the term,” the documents claimed.
Still in state jail until the new term, Veritas must complete 85% of the new sentence before being eligible for release and will be credited for her time in prison, the documents stated.
At trial, Morris County prosecutors requested a 50-year sentence, but the judge sentenced Vertetis to 30 years, ruling that he was remorseless, depressed, and anxious.
Gilhuley was a hero who helped arrest four West Brighton gunmen on May 4, 1993, according to the Advance/SILive.com obituary. He retired in 2003 after 20 years with the force. He became a senior site manager and chief customer relations liaison for Protection Advisory Security Solutions in Garden City, N.Y., after retiring.
