When was david berkowitz convicted

He was brought to court in an eight vehicle motorcade as locals lined the streets to get a look at him. The crowd jeered as he was taken to court, where he was seen smiling. He had also flashed a smile the night he was arrested.

After an eventful trial in which Berkowitz was nearly attacked, he plead guilty to killing six people and wounding seven others. In , he was sentenced to six consecutive years-to-life sentences at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility in the Catskills, NY. He continues to express remorse for the shootings, which, in , he again claimed he committed while being possessed by a demon. I thought I was doing something to appease the devil.

Berkowitz believes that he has moved on from that time and that God has forgiven him. I am not saying this jokingly. I really am. He has given me a whole new life, which I do not deserve. In that same letter, he wrote that he would stop seeking parole , which he has been eligible for since She said that Berkowitz is a standup inmate, but his victim Robert Violante , who lost his eye after being shot in the summer of while on a date with Moskowitz, was not interested in his apologies.

He killed a lot of people. Berkowitz has continued to not seek parole , often choosing to not even show up to his hearings. Berkowitz then went on to murder college student Virginia Voskerichian in March while she was walking home from class. And a month later, he attacked Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau in their car.

The letter, which was mostly gibberish, said, per CBS News , "I am deeply hurt by your calling me a [woman] hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the 'Son of Sam. When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean Sam loves to drink blood. Berkowitz committed his last crime in Brooklyn, when he killed Stacy Moskowitz and wounded year-old Robert Violante, who ended up partly blinded, per The New York Times.

After Moskowitz was killed, an eyewitness saw someone getting away in a car that had a parking ticket on it. In August , police detective James Justus sifted through traffic tickets for cars that were near where Moskowitz and Violante had been shot, and found one registered to Berkowitz, the Times reported. Justus called the Yonkers police department since Berkowitz lived in Yonkers and asked about him, only to have the dispatcher tell him that Berkowitz had shot her dog. This has got to be the guy,'" Justus told the Times.

When police went to Berkowitz's home, he told them that he was the Son of Sam, the Times says. Berkowitz was arrested on August 10, , just 11 days after his last murder.

When he was questioned by police, Berkowitz said that he had been ordered to kill by his neighbor Sam Carr, who sent messages to Berkowitz through his dog, a demon-possessed Labrador retriever, per Biography. More important, she reminded investigators that two police officers had been writing parking tickets on her street that night. At the same time, Yonkers police investigated Berkowitz after he escalated a harassment campaign against one of his neighbors.

Convinced he was the Son of Sam, they informed the Omega task force of their findings. The Omega detectives finally put two and two together, and on August 10 David Berkowitz was arrested while leaving his Yonkers home.

He gleefully admitted to being the Son of Sam. On his person was a semiautomatic rifle, and he explained he was on his way to commit another murder. There was some question about whether Berkowitz was mentally fit to stand trial, but on May 8, , he withdrew an insanity defense and pleaded guilty to the six murders. Berkowitz, in fact, appeared to enjoy the media attention his case was receiving and he proceeded to sell his exclusive story rights to a publishing house.

That prompted New York state to adopt the first in a nationwide series of so-called "Son of Sam laws" that take proceeds a criminal earns from selling their story and gives them to a victims' compensation fund. Berkowitz was given six years-to-life sentences for the crime, the maximum penalty allowed at the time. He has since been denied parole. He is currently held at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where he allegedly converted to Christianity.

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