Cat killer sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison

Animal advocates urged longer term

An East Boston man was sentenced yesterday to 2 1/2 years in prison by a Suffolk Superior Court judge who had been urged by cat lovers to impose a tougher sentence on Luigi Epifania for killing a cat and setting its corpse on fire in 2007.

Epifania was convicted by a jury last month of the malicious killing of a domestic animal and arson for the death of Nunu, a neighborhood cat.

He confessed to detectives that he stomped the animal to death, set it on fire, and tossed its remains through the window of a Princeton Street apartment building.

In letters sent to Superior Court Judge Charles T. Spurlock, five cat lovers demanded the maximum sentence of five years in jail for the June 13, 2007, attack. One letter warned that Epifania could be on his way to becoming a serial killer.

Epifania did not address the court, but his lawyer, James N. Greenberg, told Spurlock his client was in the throes of a heroin addiction at the time of the cat's death and other acts of violence in which Epifania participated.

"The media is here looking for a monster," Greenberg said of his 25-year-old client in court. "He is not a monster."

Greenberg said outside the courtroom that Epifania was familiar with the cat and had often fed the animal.

Greenberg said he was convicted of the charge based on a taped confession coerced out of him by Boston police detectives.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Yaw Gyebi urged Spurlock to send Epifania to state prison for two to four years for the cat killing and the arson, which caused property damage.

Speaking from the bench, Spurlock acknowledged getting the letters and reading them.

One woman wrote: "It is up to humans to protect all animals on this earth. I beg of you to sentence him to the fullest degree."

Another woman urged Spurlock to ignore Epifania's assertions of heroin addiction and to keep in mind that FBI studies show men who abuse animals eventually attack humans.

"Clearly this man has a violent nature, one he needs to be punished for," she wrote. "Mr. Epifania has shown he fits this pattern of cruelty toward animals leading to violence against humans . . . Please in the name of Nunu, a harmless feline, punish Mr. Epifania to the fullest extent of the law."

The judge did not address the letter writers' requests in his sentencing. He told Epifania that his problem was chronic substance abuse and that he better change his ways.

"Drugs are his problem," the judge said from the bench. "He's got a problem and he's got to address it. He's got to stay clean."

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals supported the judge's decision to imprison the East Boston man.

Epifania was also sentenced for attacking a man with a knife and a hot frying pan on June 11, 2007, in East Boston.

Spurlock gave Epifania five years' probation for the attack on the man with mandatory attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, along with drug testing once released from custody.

The judge warned Epifania that he will personally monitor what happens, and cautioned that he could be sent to state prison if he violates his probation.

With credit for the 437 days he spent at the Nashua Street Jail awaiting trial, Greenberg said Epifania should be released from the South Bay House of Correction in about three months.

"In this day and age we like pets more than people," Greenberg said.