A former transit cop who had his murder conviction overturned after 11 years behind bars was sent back to prison this afternoon for gunning down a man during an off-duty fight over a parking spot outside his father’s Westchester deli.
The stunning reversal of fortune came moments after Richard DiGuglielmo spoke privately and shared an embrace with the older brother of victim Charles Campbell.
William Campbell later declined to discuss their conversation, but said “to me, this is a sad day for everybody.”
“What I felt is that we’ve finally come to some sort of closure,” he added.
Last week, an appeals court reversed the 2008 ruling that freed DiGuglielmo on grounds that prosecutors had covered up evidence he opened fire because Campbell was about to bash his father with a baseball bat.
The Oct. 3, 1996, shooting capped a dispute that began after Campbell parked his Corvette in a “patrons only” lot in front of the older man’s Dobbs Ferry deli and headed toward a pizzeria across the street.
In court today, Westchester Judge Barbara Zambelli said a judge on the state’s highest court had refused to stay the remainder of DiGuglielmo’s 20-year sentence while challenges the ruling from the state Appellate Division in Brooklyn.
As DiGuglielmo’s parents and Campbell’s brother and grown son, Vaughn, looked on, Zambelli then denied a defense request to let DiGuglielmo have until Monday to return to prison so he could get his affairs in order.
The burly 44-year-old said nothing as court officers cuffed his hands behind his back and led him out.
Before entering the courthouse, DiGuglielmo was teary-eyed as he said: “I continue to feel a great deal of remorse about what happened on that day and I hope the Campbell family can accept my sympathy.”
“I said back many years ago that this was a tragedy all around, but to perpetuate an injustice continues to be an even bigger tragedy,” he said.
After the hearing, William Campbell said “I’m just grateful that justice has been served.”
“I never would rejoice in the returning of anyone to prison,” he said. “I won’t forgive the act but I must forgive the person.”
DiGuglielmo’s mom, Rosemarie, said: “Richie was the only man out there that night that had a duty to do something, and what an awful choice he had.”
“I understand the pain around this. I understand William Campbell’s pain. His heart and our hearts will always be tied together in this pain. I don’t think he’s walking away smiling now,” she said.
DiGuglielmo’s father, also named Richard — who the trial judge called “morally” responsible for the killing due to his aggressive protection of his privately owned parking lot — said: “It’s hard. You see your family torn apart for 14 years and you say: Is this America? You don’t wish this kind of stuff on the devil.”