Janell Funderburke, of Coram, sentenced to 25 years to life in shooting of Suffolk Police Officer Michael LaFauci

A Suffolk police officer told a Coram man who admitted trying to kill him when he shot him last year that he could never forgive him as the defendant was sentenced to an agreed-upon 25 years to life in prison Thursday.

Janell Funderburke, 21, had pleaded guilty in June to aggravated attempted murder of a police officer and first-degree robbery for crimes    including shooting Officer Michael LaFauci on a Coram street the afternoon of May 11, 2023.

“No amount of time will ever create forgiveness or ever make up for what you did to me,” LaFauci told Funderburke. “I was trying to do my job, but you were trying to kill me.”

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft said during the sentencing in Riverhead that if not for a plea agreement between prosecutors and Funderburke's attorney, a deal that received LaFauci's blessing, he would have handed down a longer sentence.

“I can think of no other way to describe you other than a wannabe thug, an absolute menace to our society, who has contributed nothing positive to our community,” Senft told Funderburke as LaFauci, 28, sat with his pregnant wife in the front row of the courtroom.

Funderburke expressed remorse when addressing the judge.

“I'm very sorry for the trouble I caused to the police officer and for letting my mom down,” Funderburke said. “She didn't raise me in that manner.”

Funderburke was under investigation for a May 8, 2023, armed robbery of two women during a marijuana deal when he shot LaFauci, 28, once in the upper thigh three days later, prosecutors have said.

A then-six-year member of the department, LaFauci was working as a plainclothes officer with an anti-gang detail on Norfleet Lane in Coram, officials said. LaFauci identified himself as a police officer as he approached a fleeing Funderburke, who fired a pair of shots at him from a 9 mm handgun, prosecutors said.

Dr. James Vosswinkel, a trauma surgeon at Stony Brook University Hospital, said after following the sentencing that the bullet entered the thigh but traveled from the right side to the left side of the officer's pelvis. The gunshot could have easily caused his death, the doctor said

“The vessels, the organs that are in that area are incredible,” Vosswinkel said. “That a 9 mm bullet twisted, turned and ripped through all that tissue and he didn't die at the scene is a miracle.”

Suffolk County Chief Assistant District Attorney Allen Bode and Lou Civello, president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, also credited LaFauci's fellow officers who assisted him at the scene with helping to save his life. The sentencing was moved to a larger courtroom to accommodate all the police officers in attendance, including more than a dozen who had to move to an overflow room to watch the proceeding.

“They stand shoulder to shoulder with [LaFauci] today,” Civello said of the officers. “They know how close they were to standing at a funeral.”

LaFauci, who said he may be permanently disabled from the shooting, said the problems his injuries have created as a parent are the most difficult he has had to endure in his recovery.

“For the past 14 months to the day, I have not been able to run around and play with my daughter like a normal father should be able to,” LaFauci said as Funderburke stood before him.

Senft noted that Funderburke had been criminally charged seven times as a juvenile and Bode pointed out he had pending charges for dealing fentanyl at the time of the shooting. Bode said if not for bail reform, Funderburke might have been in custody for his drug arrest a month earlier.

A distraught Tiyuana Jackson, Funderburke's mother, stood with a friend who addressed the media after the sentencing, reading a written statement Jackson had prepared. 

She spoke of Funderburke's diagnosis as a schizophrenic and an opioid dependency as reasons for his downfall, while also mentioning bail reform and how there might have been a different outcome for her son if he was already in custody last May. Jackson also said she deserves some of the blame since she “knew what was going on with her son” and “should have gotten him some help.”

Defense attorney Christopher Cassar, of Huntington, said his client hopes to enroll in mental health programs while in prison and to one day help younger inmates learn from the mistakes he made.

“I believe the best thing you can do is stay away from younger people,” Senft said as he handed down his sentence.

The judge told Funderburke his “one redeeming quality” is his “inability to hit the target.”

“Quite honestly,” Senft added, “You deserve to be sentenced to substantially more time in prison.”

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.