A Brooklyn man who was busted for a bank heist after a lunatic killed his 6-year-old son hopes his heartache will earn him leniency at sentencing, according to a Brooklyn federal court filing.
Nicholas Avitto’s son, Prince Joshua Avitto, was knifed to death by a schizophrenic madman at a Brooklyn housing project in a random 2014 attack that shocked the city.
Avitto was showered with sympathy and personally comforted by Mayor de Blasio at the little boy’s heartbreaking funeral. The grief-stricken father wore his son’s backpack and walked his route to school in the days after the killing.
But Avitto was later arrested for robbing a Brooklyn Heights bank more than a year before his son’s slaying and now faces up to 12 years in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors said Avitto and his brother, Scott Avitto, entered a Sovereign Bank on Montague Street with a BB gun in 2012 and made off with more than $8,000.
Lawyers for Avitto, who will be sentenced next week, argued in a filing that the loss of his son should be taken into account by Judge Allyne Ross.
“We would impress upon the court the unusual circumstances caused as a consequence of the post offense death of the defendant’s son that have forever changed him as a man in determining the appropriate sentence to impose,” attorney Alan Nelson wrote.
The lawyer asks that Ross sentence Avitto below the federal sentencing guidelines of 121 to 151 months in prison.
Prosecutor Ameet Kabrawala acknowledged that the murder should be taken into account but didn’t come close to excusing Avitto’s crime.
“Despite having a lawful source of income, the defendant instead chose to commit a serious and violent felony that victimized tellers at a nearby bank,” Kabrawala wrote. “The defendant’s punishment should therefore reflect the seriousness of his criminal conduct and provide adequate deterrence to others contemplating similar crimes.”