Maksim Gelman Gets 200 Years For Deadly Spree Across NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The 24-year-old man who admitted to stabbing his stepfather and two others to death in a rampage across New York City was sentenced to 200 years in prison on Wednesday.
Maksim Gelman was sentenced for murdering four people last February, including a young woman he was reportedly obsessed with and her mother. He also shouted down some of the victims' families during impact statements.
WCBS 880's Irene Cornell Reports From The Sentencing
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After killing his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, 54, in the family's Brooklyn apartment, police said Gelman went to the home of a female acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, 20, where he killed her 56-year-old mother. Police said he waited hours for Bulchenko to return and then stabbed her 11 times.
"The impact of his crimes will never go away as long as his victims' families are still alive," Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Taub told CBS 2's Pablo Guzman.
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Bulchenko's boyfriend, Gerard Honig, had a near confrontation with Gelman in court. As Honig began to tell the judge of his loss, Gelman interrupted and called Honig a series of profanities. Then he trashed Bulchenko before the judge temporarily ordered Gelman out of the courtroom.
"There's something going on upstairs with Mr. Gelman that kind of prevents him from controlling himself," said Gelman's lawyer, Edward Friedman.
On Tuesday, Gelman pleaded guilty to slashing a rider on a 3 train in Manhattan at the end of his 28-hour rampage. Gelman is expected to get another 25 years in prison when sentenced for that crime.
Gelman was arrested on Feb. 12, 2011 after a deadly stabbing spree, which started with a family argument over the use of his mother's car, according to police.
Gelman then stabbed a man during a carjacking before plowing into pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, 62, who died from his injuries. Authorities said he then attacked a livery cab driver and another man in a separate carjacking.
He was subdued by police at the Times Square subway station after slashing subway passenger Joseph Lozito, of Philadelphia.
"I think in most cases, killers think that they have justification for what they've done. But in most cases, they're wrong," Taub said.
