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Parents praying for man who killed their daughter
Jack C. Amato Jr. will be sentenced in March.
LISBON — Dick and Kathy Brundage said they know their daughter is in heaven, and they are praying for the man who killed her — their son-in-law.
The couple spoke after Jack C. Amato Jr., 39, pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife, Tonia, 25, at their Wellsville home July 1, 2007.
He will be sentenced at 11 a.m. March 5 by Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
The Brundages credited Special Prosecutor Lynn Grimshaw of Wheelersburg for meeting and communicating with them during the case.
The many twists and turns in the case have been tiring, they said.
Grimshaw was appointed because county Prosecutor Robert Herron represents the county board of health, which includes the defendant’s father, Dr. Jack C. Amato of Irondale.
“We know where Tonia is,” Kathy Brundage said. “She is with our Lord.”
Kathy continued, “She loved to sing and help people. She was just so loving and giving.”
Tonia, she added, was the type of person who would reach into her pocket to help anyone.
The Brundages are from Nazareth, Pa., and are members of Chippewa Evangelical Free Church in Moon Township in Pennsylvania.
They said they also have been praying for their son-in-law.
Tonia and Amato Jr. met on the Internet in 2004 and were married the next year.
Wellsville police were called to the Wellsville home of Amato Jr. early in the afternoon of July 2007. They found a .22-caliber pistol near her body and learned a .45-caliber pistol also had been fired.
Grimshaw told Judge Pike that it may never be clear what happened.
Amato Jr. originally was indicted for murder. In an agreement with the prosecutor’s office, however, he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The agreement included a recommendation from the prosecutor’s office that calls for Amato to spend eight years in prison.
Judge Pike, however, could increase the penalty to as high as 13 years, which could include a mandatory three-year sentence for using a handgun in the commission of a crime.
After Amato Jr. was charged in the shooting, he was allowed to live at his father’s house in Irondale. But in September 2008, authorities found he had homemade bombs and more guns in his possession while he was under house arrest, and he was jailed.
Prosecutors said the time Amato Jr. has spent in the Columbiana County Jail awaiting his trial or plea for shooting his wife will equal any sentence he will get for having the bombs and other guns.
wilkinson@vindy.com