NYC killer scheduled for sentencing in rampage

[January 18, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A man who acknowledged killing four people in a rampage of stabbings, carjackings and other crimes is facing 100 years in prison and was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Maksim Gelman pleaded guilty in November to murder, assault and attempted murder in the February 2011 rampage that spanned two days. He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to his final crime, slashing a subway passenger in Manhattan. The other crimes took place in Brooklyn.

Gelman initially said he was not guilty. But, given the evidence in the case and a psychiatrist's recent opinion that Gelman couldn't argue he was not guilty by reason of insanity, he decided he wanted to get out of his holding cell -- and start serving his time in a permanent facility, his lawyer said.

His lawyer has described his mental state as "fragile."

Brooklyn state Supreme Court judge Vincent Del Giudice warned Gelman when he suddenly changed his plea Nov. 30 that he would be facing a century in prison.

"It's quite likely, almost guaranteed, that any sentence I give means you'd never be released from a penal institution while you are alive," the judge said at the time.

The rampage started during an argument over using the family car. Gelman stabbed his stepfather to death and took off in his mother's car. He drove to the Brooklyn home of a female acquaintance whose friends have said he was obsessed with her. Gelman killed the woman's mother, then waited hours for the 20-year-old daughter to return and stabbed her 11 times.

Gelman drove away, rear-ended another car and stabbed its driver when he confronted Gelman, police said. The driver survived.

Stealing the wounded man's car, Gelman drove off and plowed into a pedestrian, who died from his injuries, police said. After abandoning the car, Gelman later hailed a livery cab and attacked its driver, then approached another car, attacked a man inside and hijacked the car, police said. Both men survived.

The subway stabbing was a separate case because it happened in Manhattan. He is facing an additional 25 years on that guilty plea.

[Associated Press; By COLLEEN LONG]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.