KINGSTON, N.Y. -- In court Tuesday, attorneys on both sides gave varying remarks on Gilberto Nunez’s character.
“The public needs more protection from an individual such as Gilberto Nunez, and lastly, pure and simple punishment,” said Orange County Senior Assistant District Attorney Maryellen Albanese.
“Gilberto Nunez has been thoroughly humbled by this experience. I think he sits before you a different man,” said defense attorney Evan Lipton.
The defense requested six months jail time and five years probation, while the prosecution asked for maximum consecutive prison sentences on all charges. In the end, Judge Donald Williams sentenced Nunez to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison.
“He was a man who repeatedly participated in separate and calculated acts of deceit and manipulation of others, in some occasions, for reasons I still don’t get,” said Williams.
“We were asking for a state prison sentence, and we were gratified that he was sentenced to state prison, even though not for the length of time we requested,” said Albanese.
Nunez was acquitted of murder in June in connection with the death of his friend Thomas Kolman. But he was convicted of two counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the same trial. In two later trials, he was found guilty of lying on a pistol permit application and numerous charges related to a false insurance claim.
Nunez was sentenced on all of those charges Tuesday. The sentence includes about four months he's already served.
He was sentenced to 1 1/3 to four years in prison in the pistol permit case, and one to three years in the insurance case. He was also sentenced to a year in prison for criminal possession of a forged instrument. That sentence, however, runs concurrently with the other convictions, so it doesn’t increase his time in prison.
Defense Attorney Gerald Shargel said an appeal will follow.