Michaelangelo Conte
JERSEY CITY — A 26-year-old Harrison man who was drunk and high on drugs when he shot his sleeping wife because there wasn’t enough room in the bed was sentenced to nine years in prison today.
“This is a horrible, sad and senseless case,” Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Roe said at this morning’s sentencing of Victor Sagastume.
Sagastume was charged with attempted murder after the Feb. 18, 2017 shooting in Harrison but eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.
“He came into his home drunk and high on drugs, goes up to where his wife and the mother of his children was sleeping, pulls out a handgun and shoots her as she sleeps,” Roe told Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young at the hearing.
Young noted that Sagastume had said that on the day of the incident he “became angry because there wasn’t enough room in the bed.” He also noted that “Mr. Sagastume has been involved in the justice system for more than half his life.”
Has a number of criminal convictions ranging from drug offenses to a prior aggravated assault, officials said.
At the time of the incident, police said the 33-year-old victim was shot twice in the chest. Sagastume then drove his wounded wife to the Jersey City Medical Center with the couple’s children in the car, officials said in court today.
Speaking in a very soft voice, Sagastume said he was remorseful. He must serve more than 7½ years of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole and must then serve three years of parole.
It was said during the hearing that Sagastume had been drinking brandy and taking ecstasy prior to shooting his wife.
Defense attorney Dennis McAlevy said the victim was in court at the sentencing and that she wanted Sagastume to be sentenced to the lowest possible sentence.
Young said that victims don’t decide sentences, judges do. He noted that if victims decided sentences, most defendants would be in prison longer.
