Guy Rivera, who fatally shot NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller, of Massapequa Park, sentenced to 115 years to life

A judge sentenced the convicted killer of NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller from Long Island to spend the rest of his life in prison after the victim's widow said her life and that of her young son had been torn apart by her husband's death.

"In a single moment, everything in my life ended," Stephanie Diller said, looking directly at Guy Rivera, during his sentencing in Queens Criminal Court on Monday. "I believe we are accountable for our actions and accountability does not end here. One day you will stand before God and answer about you did to Jonathan."

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise showed no mercy to the 36-year-old Rivera, who was convicted earlier this month for the aggravated manslaughter of Diller, 31, from Massapequa Park, during a March 25, 2024, street shooting in Far Rockaway.

Aloise hit Rivera with a combined consecutive prison terms totaling 115 years to life in prison for the manslaughter conviction, as well as a charge of attempted murder of Diller's partner, NYPD Sgt. Sasha Rosen, and two weapon offenses.

Aloise also addressed the defendant. He said, "Mr. Rivera, it took me five minutes to calculate these numbers. It will take you a lifetime to calculate the grief you have caused these people."

Rivera declined to speak before Aloise sentenced him.

Before the judge imposed sentence,  Stephanie Diller addressed the court and described her pain, dabbing her face with a tissue. "You took my husband Jonathan. You took the future we planned together.  There is silence in my home where there should be his voice. I make decisions I was never meant to make alone and there are conversations that will never happen and memories that ended far too soon ...

"No sentence can give back his life, or our son, Ryan, a father, or make my family whole again." The couple's son was 1 year old when Diller was killed.

After speaking, Stephanie Diller left the courtroom. Diller’s mother, Fran Diller, took her turn at the podium, fighting back tears as she read from a prepared statement about her loss.

"There is an emptiness inside of me," Fran Diller said. "Jonathan is dead and that will haunt me every day of my life ... Since March 25, 2024, my life has been completely shattered."

Rivera’s sentence was an enhanced one because of Rivera’s two prior felony convictions, one for a drug offense and another for shooting a gun at a bystander during a larceny.

Defense attorney Jamal Johnson said Rivera would be appealing his conviction because of the way Aloise instructed the jury.

The Queens jury in the case sparked outrage and controversy when, on April 1, it failed to convict Rivera of the top charge of first-degree murder of a police officer but instead found him guilty of the lesser included offense of first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

But while the failure to convict on murder in the first degree charge technically lessened the penalty Rivera faced by cutting out the chance he wouldn’t be considered for parole, the sentencing laws all but assured Aloise had the leeway to slam him with an effective sentence of life behind bars.

During the two-week trial, jurors watched numerous police body camera and outside surveillance videos that caught the encounter as Diller and fellow officers surrounded a Kia Soul, where both Rivera and co-defendant, Lindy Jones, were inside.

Diller asked Rivera, who police suspected was carrying a firearm, to get out but he refused. Finally, in an instant after the car door was opened, police videos showed Rivera pull out a .38-caliber handgun which discharged in the direction of Diller, mortally wounding him in the abdomen under his bullet-resistant vest. Diller died about an hour later at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

Stephanie Diller testified briefly during the trial, barely containing her grief as she related the last words she and her husband said to each other: "I love you."

Outside the courthouse, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said while there was wasn’t a conviction on the top murder charge, the massive sentence Rivera received assured that he wouldn’t leave prison.

Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry, flanked by dozens of police officers on the steps of the courthouse, reiterated his prior criticism that the verdict should have been guilty on the murder charge.

"This sentence sends the right message," Hendry said. "Despite what the defense said, he is a murderer, to carry a loaded firearm on the streets of Rockaway, Queens ... he should never, ever walk the streets again, and he won’t."

In a social media posting, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the sentence Rivera was hit with "is obviously the right result, for him and for anyone who kills a New York City police officer."

After he died, Diller was posthumously promoted to the rank of detective and Monday Scott Munro, president of the Detective’s Endowment Association said in a statement the 115-year minimum sentence "isn’t as good as the death penalty. Cop killers should receive the sentence they gave to our brave Detective Diller."

During the trial Rivera’s Legal Aid Society attorneys had argued in their opening and closing statements to the jury the discharge of Rivera’s handgun was unintentional, caused by Rosen trying to grab the defendant’s hand holding the gun. The video evidence, while not clear-cut, apparently was enough to raise doubts among jurors that Rivera intentionally wanted to kill Diller when he bolted from the car with the handgun drawn and pointed at Diller.

The lesser included offense of first-degree aggravated manslaughter required that Rivera intended to seriously harm Diller and in doing so caused his death.

Aside from the expected Rivera appeal, another trial is expected for Jones, the driver of the car, who faces weapons charges in the case.