Judge Hands Wife-Killer 26-Year Term Oldest Children Call For Longer Prison Term For Their Mother’s Killer

A Spokane judge called Tom DiBartolo “a disgrace to police” who deserves longer than 26 years in prison for killing his wife.

But after more than an hour of tearful appeals for and against leniency, Judge Neal Rielly said he had no legal basis to hand the former sheriff’s deputy a longer prison term than the law allows.

Wednesday’s sentencing was an emotional finish to more than 14 months of intense scrutiny focused on Tom and Patty DiBartolo’s unhappy marriage and her execution-style murder the night of Nov. 2, 1996.

In December, after a five-week trial, a jury convicted DiBartolo, 43, of first-degree murder.

Jurors concluded DiBartolo had planned the crime at Spokane’s Lincoln Park, shooting his wife with her own .38-caliber pistol, then wounding himself to support his story of being attacked by two would-be robbers.

Before sentencing, Rielly heard appeals from DiBartolo’s family members, some urging a harsh judgment, some urging a lenient sentence.

DiBartolo’s oldest children - Nicholas DiBartolo, 18, and Michelle Robinson, 21, - told Rielly their father deserves 50 years behind bars for killing their mother.

Gasping for breath, Nicholas DiBartolo struggled to finish his plea to the judge. “I don’t understand how anyone can cause this much pain to his family,” he said.

Bobbie Jean Harrison, Patty DiBartolo’s sister, held up the last photo taken of her. “She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to miss the birthdays of her children,” she said. “Please give him a sentence that gives my sister some peace.”

They were followed by two of DiBartolo’s sisters and his 15-year-old daughter Katrina, who begged the judge to sentence him within the state’s range of 20 to 26 years.

“His own mother couldn’t come today,” said DiBartolo’s older sister, Lynn Jones. “She feels as though she’s already lost her son.”

Just before the sentence was read, DiBartolo stood and passionately insisted he was innocent.

Turning to face his wife’s parents, Floyd and Ramona Reeves, DiBartolo said: “If these shoulders are strong enough to bear your hate, I will do that. I have no choice.”

He also vowed to appeal his conviction, saying “rules and law books” kept the jury from hearing evidence that proves his innocence.

Rielly then carefully laid out reasons why he had to stay within the standard sentencing range of 20 to 26 years.

Prosecutor Jim Sweetser and Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz argued that the crime deserves a 50-year sentence because it was carried out by a veteran law enforcement officer who took advantage of his training.

The prosecutors also cited DiBartolo’s lack of remorse and elaborate attempts to conceal the crime.

But Rielly said the evidence presented at trial failed to establish how the defendant’s training created an “enhanced culpability.” The judge said state law prevents him from considering lack of remorse and elaborate concealment as factors supporting an exceptional sentence.

Rielly said he felt DiBartolo deserved longer than 26 years in prison.

“But given the facts of this case, there’s no basis for that exceptional sentence,” he said.

He called DiBartolo “a disgrace to the police force,” a “bad apple in local law enforcement,” and “a murderer - nothing more and nothing less.”

The earliest DiBartolo can leave prison will be in 20 years, if he earns time off for good behavior, said Steinmetz.

Sweetser later said he felt there were adequate grounds to justify a longer prison term. “But we accept that it’s within the court’s discretion” to choose the appropriate sentence.

The standard prison term DiBartolo got was based on state guidelines for premeditated murder and his lack of a criminal record. Any sentence Rielly might have imposed outside the 20-to-26 year range could have been overruled by an appeals court.

Defense attorney Maryann Moreno said the sentence was “sound and fair.”

She had argued that DiBartolo’s job status could not be used to add extra prison time. She also asked Rielly to consider that DiBartolo was a man whose law enforcement training led to “acts of heroism” and not criminal behavior.

At one point, she played a short video of a 1990 newscast showing DiBartolo as a county dive team member, trying to save a drowning child.

“There’s nothing in the statutes or case law that supports sentencing a person because of what he does,” she said.

Relatives leaving the court said they would try to repair the bitter divisions created in the family.

“This was the day we waited for for a long time,” said Harrison. “We want closure and time to move forward.

“There’s still a lot of healing we have to do.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo