Wakefield gets life without parole in 2010 Schenectady killing

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

John Wakefield, right, at his sentencing this morning for the killing of Brett Wentworth in Schenectady, May 27, 2015. He received life without parole. Left is Wakefield's attorney Frederick Rench.

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Brett Wentworth’s family asked for the maximum sentence Wednesday for his killer, and the judge in the case obliged.

Judge Michael V. Coccoma handed John Wakefield a sentence of life without parole for the April 2010 robbery and murder of the 41-year-old Wentworth inside his Schenectady residence.

Margaret Messer’s voice was filled with emotion as she asked for that sentence. She explained to the judge how the murder of her brother affected their family. His daughter was left without a father, his mother without a son, his siblings without a brother.

Wentworth was a loving man, Messer told Coccoma.

“John Wakefield had a choice, a choice that he made with intent,” Messer told Coccoma. “Please, your honor, do not give him the opportunity to do this to another sweet, loving man and another caring, loving family.

“Please sentence him to life without parole.”

Coccoma justified the sentence by citing the severity and senselessness of Wakefield’s crime, as well as his long criminal history, which indicated he will remain a danger.

“This court is not going to give you another opportunity to be released into the community,” Coccoma told Wakefield. “The sentence for the homicide is going to be life without parole, and that’s because it’s been earned. That’s what you earned through your ongoing, escalating behavior.”

Wakefield, 48, was convicted after trial in March of first-degree murder and other charges. The jury found Wakefield strangled Wentworth to death for a few hundred dollars worth of Wentworth’s belongings.

Prosecutors contended Wakefield killed Wentworth April 11, 2010, inside Wentworth’s Wendell Avenue apartment in the midst of a drug binge, prosecutors said. Charges weren’t filed until November 2012, though, as Wakefield served time in an unrelated case and city police and prosecutors built their case. The trial was delayed in part because prosecutors sought and won the right to use a new type of DNA technology.

Wakefield declined to give a statement in court Wednesday. He first handed a written statement to the judge, but took it back on the advice of his attorney, Frederick Rench.

Rench said his client maintains his innocence and will appeal. Rench also argued for the minimum sentence — 25 years to life — to let a parole board decide whether to let Wakefield out when he would be in his 70s.

Prosecutor Peter Willis asked for the maximum sentence of life without parole, which was available because Willis proved Wentworth was killed during the course of a robbery.

Wentworth’s family members worked with police in the months and years after his death to solve the murder. In December 2010, they held a news conference at the Schenectady police station and handed out fliers at places where police believed they might be useful. Local union members also helped spread the word.

Authorities credited those efforts with uncovering one of three men to whom Wakefield confessed the crime.

His family has described Wentworth as someone who didn’t have much but would save up what he had to ensure he was able to get family members something when the holidays came around. He was the father of a daughter who lives with family in Connecticut. She was 11 when her father was killed.