A Navy veteran has been sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for murdering his sister with a bayonet blade and an awl after his love of watching true crime content led him to believe he was going to kill their mother.
Before he was sentenced in September, 53-year-old Anthony Dibella told a judge in Jefferson County, New York, that he was officially diagnosed with schizoaffective and bipolar disorder in 1994 after serving in Operation Desert Storm, per courtroom minutes obtained by Inside Edition. , hoping he “might get [some] help from a VA hospital instead of going to jail.”
On April 28, 2022, Dibella reported her sister’s murder to 911 dispatchers, telling them “Wanda Paoli was being murdered, she was a witch who was killed with a knife and a dagger, and was now on the porch” of their Lyme home, per court documents.
First responders found Paoli dead with stab wounds to the head, neck and face, according to court documents.
When officers arrived at the home he and Paoli shared, finding the 67-year-old on the porch, Dibella allegedly told police he “had to do what I did to him because he was blocking my way of communicating with God.”
Dibella was arrested after police found her 89-year-old mother unharmed inside and charged her with second-degree murder, assault with intent to cause serious injury and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Paoli’s sons, Shawn and Josh, wrote that they hope Dibella “rots in prison with no chance to get out for what he’s done” and that their convicted uncle “does nothing.” [them] now” in their impact statement shared at the September 20 sentencing hearing.
Upstate New York man Anthony Dibella, 53, was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for killing his sister Wanda Paoli. Jefferson County Correctional Facility
“He selfishly and violently took his own life and has destroyed our family,” the statement said. “Every day is difficult, and no one can understand the physiological impact of this senseless tragedy… on the lives of our entire family because our mother is no longer with us. I can’t put into words how much he is missed.”
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Instead of apologizing, according to court documents, Dibella followed their statements with an attempt to justify the killing.
Due to “obsession[ion] with a reality show about serial killers,” a recent purchase of a battery-powered chainsaw and a small bruise she saw on her mother’s hand, Dibella said at her sentencing that she was convinced her sister intended to kill their mother.
Dibella admits that she “stopped everything [his] psychotropic medication” after “attending a healing church service” in 2019, bringing his “paranoia to get the best [him],” the veteran doubled down on his delusions on the court.
“I believe without a shadow of a doubt that I saved my mother’s life that day,” Dibella concluded.
A prosecutor objected to Dibella’s statement in court, according to the documents, stating that they were “here to sentence, not to demean the victim of an intentional homicide, here.”
Judge David Renzi reprimanded Dibella before handing down the sentence.
“I’m very familiar with the issues of potentially being a mental health defense – that, of course, is negated when you plead guilty to second-degree murder,” Renzi said. “When we discussed the appeal, you explained to me that you intentionally caused the death of Wanda Paoli. You described it as an unreasonable step that you took. Well, it’s more than that. You made a choice… to kill someone.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
