An unapologetic gangbanger callously chalked up his cold-blooded murder of two NYPD detectives to a quirk of human nature, before he was sentenced to death Tuesday by a Brooklyn federal judge who also slammed his jailers for letting the cop killer run a “fiefdom” behind bars.
Ronell Wilson, who shot undercover detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews at point-blank range during a Staten Island gun buy gone bad in 2003, explained his actions by mangling an oft-used aphorism coined by 18th-century British poet Alexander Pope.
“I would like to leave you on this note: ‘To error is human and to forgive is divine,’” Wilson told the victims’ families and stunned courtroom spectators. “May God bless your families.”
As Judge Nicholas Garaufis handed down the ultimate punishment, and slammed Wilson as a remorseless killer, he also condemned officials who run the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn, where Wilson was able to impregnate a prison guard.
“[Wilson] was permitted to treat the MDC as his own personal fiefdom,” Garaufis said.
“Perhaps most shocking, when an inmate summoned the courage to anonymously report the defendant’s illicit conduct to authorities, the defendant was provided with that inmate’s actual handwritten complaint and then permitted to hold an inquisition in the housing unit, interrogating inmate after inmate to determine who had reported him.”
Garaufis called for a Department of Justice probe of the MDC to find out who was responsible for allowing “this behavior to occur, placing at risk of harm other inmates and the many hard-working personnel at the facility.”
A federal Bureau of Prisons official declined to comment on Garaufis’ shocking claims.
Det. Andrews’ still-grieving dad didn’t buy any of the killer’s lame statement.
“All these years and he didn’t want to talk — now it’s doomsday and he wants to talk. It doesn’t mean anything,” Rodney Andrews Sr. said outside the courthouse. “He committed the ultimate crime and he needs to pay.”
A handful of death penalty abolitionists sat with Wilson’s family in court.
One of them had the gall to tell Andrews’ dad: “You will heal much sooner [if Wilson isn’t put to death].”
The slain cop’s father coldly, but calmly turned to her and replied: “I will heal anyway.”
Wilson had once before faced a death sentence but a jury’s recommendation was tossed on a technicality.
The condemned Bloods hoodlum couldn’t escape justice this time, as new panel of seven women and five men recommended death for Wilson in July.
Prosecutors have long argued that Wilson’s cold-blooded killings and indifferent attitude since his arrest, make him an ideal candidate for capital punishment.
“I certainly hope that his execution will be carried out during my tenure [as union president],” Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said after the sentencing. “If you need someone to pull the switch, just ask.”
Wilson’s lawyers had argued that their client was the victim of a horrific childhood that included a neglectful, drug-addicted mother and an absentee father.
The killer had pleaded for life in prison behind bars — a place where the gang banger has been thriving.
When Wilson’s not having sex with guards, he’s been busy creating prison mayhem.
He was caught on tape sparking a near riot at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Sept. 14, 2012, forcing officials to gather the prison “extraction” team.
Wilson refused to leave a portion of the lock-up’s yard that day, as corrections officers repeatedly yelled at him to put his hands through a door opening so he could be cuffed.
After a final warning the unrepentant Bloods gangbanger can be heard on security video shouting: “Suck d–k!”
That’s when guards fired a “distraction grenade” to disorient Wilson as guards barreled through the door and swarmed Wilson as he struggled to stay on his feet.
Video of the confrontation was shown to jurors who recommended that he be executed.
Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan thanked federal prosecutors for securing “the only appropriate sentence for the assassination of these two brave police officers.”