Metro

Killer who called gun ‘Loretta’ gets maximum prison sentence

Three generations of a grieving Brooklyn family tore into a violent punk who named his gun “Loretta” and used it to gun down a steamfitter father-of-four, as the killer was hit with the max prison sentence Wednesday.

“I can’t even cry at home because then the kids cry. You changed my family forever,” said Linda Williams, 37, the widow of victim Martin Williams, 42.

Linda Williams said her and Martin’s 11-year-old son, Dahil, told her to tell his killer, Daneel Edwards: “Mommy, tell him he made a bad decision. When he pulled the trigger, he made a bad decision.”

Martin Williams’ mother, Joann Williams, seethed at Edwards, “You sat there and smiled. You have no remorse. You have no right to be free!”

Edwards – who named his 9 mm handgun “Loretta” — was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.

He had hid “Loretta” in a crib in his girlfriend’s apartment before gunning down Williams in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens on April 9, 2013.

Martin WilliamsGregory P. Mango

Edwards stared straight at the crying family members in court but showed no expression.

Linda Williams, wife of Martin Williams in Brooklyn supreme court on Wednesday, August 20.Riyad Hasan

He gave a half-hearted apology, saying, “I apologize for your feelings towards me, but I never meant for Mr. Williams to die.”

The beef between the two men started at a bodega, when Edwards told gal pal Anita Adkins that Williams “looked like a rat,” Adkins wrote in a statement.

Adkins then called her friend, Alice Alacron, and told her to bring the gun from their apartment downstairs for Edwards, apparently predicting retribution.

“She told me to tell Kayshawn [Adkins] to go in the bag in the crib [and] bring Loretta downstairs to meet her in the lobby,” Alacron wrote in her statement.

After firing six bullets through the side of the van Williams was sitting in, Edwards fled back up into his girlfriend’s apartment and ordered her to cut the long braids he wore in a topknot.

“He hides his gun in a bag in the baby’s crib again, and he has [a friend] cut his hair,” Assistant District Attorney Melissa Carvajal said during trial.

An NYPD detective who searched the apartment testified Tuesday that he found clippers on a bed, a bag full of hair on the floor, and the handgun in the crib.

“This was not an intentional murder,” defense lawyer Jason Russo said during the trial, suggesting Edwards was defending himself.

Edwards was convicted of intentional murder July 22.