The leader of a vicious jewelry gang that killed a retired NYPD cop and maimed dozens of robbery victims was sent to prison for life yesterday after the judge heard a series of heart-tugging pleas for justice.
With dozens of teary NYPD officers looking on, Judge Shira Scheindlin sentenced Queens thug Alex Restrepo, 26, to life without parole for the shooting of retired Detective Donald Pagani in The Bronx on Aug. 27, 1999.
The gang pulled off more than 50 heists in six states during four years, including a $1.2 million diamond robbery outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown in which a gem dealer was shot.
Restrepo, who fled to Colombia after shooting Pagani nine times, sat stone-faced throughout the hearing in Manhattan federal court and declined to offer any apologies for his ruthless crimes.
Pagani’s son, Donald Pagani Jr., also a cop, choked back tears as he recounted how his 69-year-old dad courageously tried to fight off five gang members as they surrounded his car while he was leaving the American Sirloin Meat and Poultry Co. in Hunts Point, where he was working, to bank $52,000.
“He died half on the sidewalk and half in the gutter with no one there to say ‘I love you,'” Pagani said, clutching his father’s NYPD shield.