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28-year-old sentenced to life in 2017 killing of cancer-stricken grandmother

Benjamin Lopez was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole in the machete killing of a cancer-stricken grandmother. “We finally got justice that we were waiting for," the victim's daughter said. NewsdayTV’s Cecilia Dowd reports. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp and Johnny Milano; Photo Credit: Family photo

A judge sentenced a 28-year-old man to life in prison Tuesday, exactly five years after the defendant used a machete to kill a cancer-stricken Levittown grandmother who prosecutors said got “in the way” of a revenge plan aimed at her grandson.

A jury convicted Benjamin Lopez of murder in the first and second degrees, along with assault, robbery, burglary and weapon charges after the Sept. 13, 2017, intrusion at victim Laraine Pizzichemi's home on North Newbridge Road.

Lopez’s lawyers used an insanity defense at his trial earlier this summer. They told jurors schizophrenia kept the Levittown man from knowing his behavior was wrong, while claiming Lopez's co-conspirator was the one who actually hacked the 73-year-old to death. 

But the prosecution insisted Lopez acted intentionally when he and a Uniondale man carried out the vicious plot.

Court officers rolled Lopez into the Nassau County Court proceeding in a wheelchair Tuesday after authorities said he refused to walk in on his own.

He read a rambling statement espousing the beliefs of the sovereign citizens movement, saying he didn’t recognize the judge’s authority and didn’t consent to being sentenced.

But after offering condolences to Pizzichemi’s family, Acting State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano meted out Lopez's punishment.

“He is an animal,” Pizzichemi’s daughter, Elaina Depperman, told the judge, saying she still has nightmares about that day.

After court, she expressed relief that Lopez would spend the rest of his life behind bars without a chance at parole.

“It’s been five years and we finally got justice that we’ve been waiting for … I really do feel bad for the people out there that … have mental conditions and are insane. But clearly, Ben did this with intent and he got what he deserved,” said Depperman, 52.

Family photograph of victim Laraine Pizzichemi.

Family photograph of victim Laraine Pizzichemi. Credit: Family photo

Pizzichemi was an unique, lively, wonderful person, according to her son-in-law, Thomas Dorsa, 67. He recalled after court how he affectionately called the mother of two and grandmother of four "Hurricane Laraine."

 "We're happy with the judge's sentence. He won't be out, ever," Dorsa said of Lopez. "... It's the end of a terrible, terrible five years." 

Prosecutor Stefanie Palma said during Lopez’s trial that he repeatedly slashed the 95-pound grandmother until she “could not fight anymore” after he and co-conspirator Deangelo Gill broke in that afternoon to carry out a targeted attack against her grandson.

The plan was to rob the grandson, Mark Depperman, then 24, of drugs and money to pay him back for “snitching” — or giving Lopez’s name to police — after one of his drug arrests, she said.

Gill, 24, of Uniondale, is serving a sentence of 17 years to life in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to second-degree murder and assault.

Pizzichemi’s grandson returned home that day as Lopez and Gill initially tried to hide before also attacking him as Lopez demanded that he open his safe, according to authorities.

Mark Depperman, who was scarred in the attack and lost the use of his left hand, declined to comment after Lopez’s sentencing.

Palma also said during the trial that Pizzichemi’s granddaughter, then 21, came home to “blood everywhere” before Lopez pulled out a gun and again demanded that the grandson open the safe.

After he did, Lopez and Gill stole cash and marijuana and then fled after seeing a police officer outside the home because of an interrupted 911 call the grandson made that triggered a law-enforcement response, according to the prosecution.

Police found the machete in the house and soon apprehended Lopez and Gill at Lopez’s nearby home, according to authorities. They said they found the machete’s sheath in Lopez’s waistband, before testing revealed Pizzichemi’s DNA on it.

Lopez’s defense team tried to portray Gill during the trial as the mastermind behind the crime, saying Gill leveraged his friendship with Lopez to manipulate him.

Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb presented jurors with records detailing Lopez’s psychiatric diagnoses and treatment from when he was 7 years old until age 15, when he said his client’s mental illness began to go untreated.

“Whatever was going on in his brain, it resulted in him at that time breaking with reality and losing control over his thinking,” Gottlieb said in his closing argument about the day of the murder.

 But Palma told jurors in her closing argument that Lopez “knew exactly what he was doing and he absolutely knew it was wrong.” 

Defense attorney Kaylee Kreitenberg said during Tuesday’s sentencing that Lopez’s “mental illness should not condemn him to a life without hope,” while asking for a penalty that would give him a chance at being free in the future.

Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said later it was obvious that Lopez knew exactly what was going on that day and knew what he had done was wrong.

“I think it’s deserved,” she added of his sentence, recalling the crime scene as “one of the bloodiest” local authorities ever had seen.

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