Friday, October 23, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
The daughter of an 84-year-old man who was beaten to death in his West Side residence wanted the murderer to explain why he killed her father.
“I ask you, why? Why have you torn our world apart? You have taken someone very dear and precious. You had no right to enter his home and take him away from all who loved him,” said a tearful Kathy Sklenar, daughter of the victim, Mykola Iwaniuk.
“I can’t have back what you have taken, and I hope and I pray that you find it in your heart maybe to least give us an explanation,” added Sklenar, of Canfield, one of about 25 family members and friends of Iwaniuk who attended Friday’s sentencing hearing.
The only answer Sklenar could get was a terse statement from James Gentile, lawyer for Joseph Faunda, who was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in prison.
“The fact that drugs entered into this crime and tainted his mind and tainted his conduct – that’s no excuse. He knows that,” Gentile said of his client, who killed Iwaniuk in his Oakwood Avenue home.
Faunda, who sat with his head bowed and his hands clasped in his lap during the sentencing, gave no explanation but did apologize.
“I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart,” Faunda said. “I wish I could take back that night, but I can’t.
“It was an evil and cowardly thing that I’ve done, and I’m going to hate myself for it for the rest of my life.”
Faunda, 44, of Maryland Avenue, drew the prison term from Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Faunda had pleaded guilty Oct. 14 to aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property in the slaying of Iwaniuk, who was found dead at 5:30 a.m. Jan. 21 in his residence.
A Vindicator carrier called police after she noticed Iwaniuk’s door open and all the lights on in his home.
Authorities on the scene said Iwaniuk had been dead for more than a day.
The coroner determined that Iwaniuk died of blunt-force trauma to his head.
“Mike Iwaniuk, in his final fight, clawing for his life, grabbed the key piece of evidence” – Faunda’s DNA, Mike Yacovone, an assistant county prosecutor, told the judge.
Detectives said that as far as they knew, the only items taken were the victim’s car and TV.
Informants told police they saw Faunda in Iwaniuk’s car, which was found in Calvary Cemetery two hours after Iwaniuk was found dead.
The prosecution and defense had agreed to a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for Faunda, which is nonappealable because the judge adopted it.
After court, Nick Iwaniuk of Keller, Texas, the victim’s eldest son, said the family agreed with the sentence because it allows the family to avoid the stress and uncertainty of a trial and brings closure to the court case.
A conviction in a trial could have resulted in a maximum prison term of 30 years to life, he said. “There was no need to try for the extra five years.”