A coldblooded killer dubbed the “Brooklyn Ripper” for his butchery of two little kids was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years to life behind bars.
But first, a brave young girl who survived his rampage vowed to not let the traumatic attack, which left her pal dead, “define who I am.”
Mikayla Capers was just 7 when she and her best friend, Prince Joshua “PJ” Avitto , 6, were cornered and repeatedly stabbed by St. Hubert inside an elevator at a Brooklyn public-housing complex.
PJ was stabbed 11 times and died at the scene. Mikayla somehow survived and crawled to the building’s entrance.
“Sometimes I try not to remember this bad man Daniel St. Hubert and what he did to me,” Mikayla , now 11, said in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where she faced down the killer. “But every day, I must look at my body and see the 16 stab wounds that will be there for the rest of my life.”
The adorable girl, who testified at trial, asked Judge Vincent Del Giudice to sentence St. Hubert to life so he “can never hurt anyone else.”
“I will not let this horrible thing that happened to me and my best friend PJ define who I am,” Mikayla told the court.
The courtroom, packed with the two victims’ relatives, burst into applause as the judge told St. Hubert, “It is my honest hope and desire that you never regain your freedom.”
At one point during the proceedings, St. Hubert was caught snoozing in his chair – mouth agape.
Prosecutor Patrick O’Connor, who had urged a life sentence, read a letter from PJ’s dad, Nicholas Avitto, who couldn’t be at court.
“Justice took a stand against this hideous monster,” the father wrote.
O’Connor said St. Hubert deserved the maximum sentence, noting that he punched and strangled his mom with an electrical cord until she passed out while threatening to kill her in 2009.
The 31-year-old Cypress Hills man never once apologized for the unprovoked 2014 slaying in the Boulevard Houses in East New York.
St. Hubert was convicted last month of murder and attempted murder.
His DNA was found on the handle of a steak knife found near the building where the kids were attacked, and blood on the blade was a match to that of the two victims.
His lawyers said they plan to appeal.