25-year sentence for three attacks on elderly women that claimed a life

Jun, 30-2009 11:25 am

MAYS LANDING – An Egg Harbor Township man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday, June 25 for attacking three elderly women, resulting in the death of one of them, during a 2006 crime spree.

Robert Shaver, 33, entered a guilty plea in May to aggravated manslaughter and three robberies in connection with the death of one woman and the robberies of two other women. He was sentenced in accordance with the plea agreement, said Atlantic County Prosecutor Theodore F.L. Housel.

He must serve 85 percent of the prison term before parole eligibility, the prosecutor said. In addition, he was also sentenced on three associated robberies, receiving stolen property (an automobile) and extortion. The sentences are to run concurrent to the aggravated manslaughter sentence.

Upon release, Shaver will be subject to a mandatory five-year period of parole as well as a one-year mandatory driver’s license suspension, according to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Ellen Loughney.

On Aug. 11, 2006 Shaver robbed Mildred Petrone in the parking lot of the Absecon ShopRite along Route 30 and left the 87-year-old woman for dead. Petrone suffered a broken neck and died five days later at the hospital.

During Shaver’s plea hearing in May, the defendant told the court that he also robbed Phyllis Cosulich and Irene Ruzzo a few days after the attack on Petrone.

Prior to sentencing Superior Court Judge Albert Garofolo listened to victim impact statements from Ruzzo, 68, and Cosulich, 83, who told the court in a letter read by the chief assistant prosecutor that she fears going anywhere alone. She also stated that she wanted to provide her attacker with the Bible.

“I will say I am not happy with 25 years. I believe in an eye for an eye,” Irene Ruzzo said, adding that Shaver never once showed remorse for what he had done.

Ruzzo said she thanked law enforcement officers in the case and said she takes comfort in knowing Shaver is off the streets.

Loughney acknowledged that 25 years is not a perfect outcome.

“If it were a perfect world Mildred Petrone would be alive today and Robert Shaver would not have been on the streets preying on vulnerable people in our community,” she said. “To attempt to bring this process to an end for the victims, the state, and even for the defendant, we engaged in plea discussions that were initiated by the defendant.”

Janet O’Brien, Petrone’s niece, spoke of the loss of her aunt, whom she described as a healthy and independent woman until Shaver attacked her. As Petrone lay paralyzed in her hospital bed, all she spoke of was that she wanted to see her home again. O’Brien shed tears and then called Shaver a coward and an animal for what he did to the victims.

Prior to imposing a sentence, Superior Court Judge Albert Garofolo asked the defendant if he wished to speak.

Referring to the victims’ and Loughney’s comments, he asked the defendant, “Does it have any effect on you?”

 “It has an extreme effect on me. I’m sorry that they had to go through what they had to go through,” Shaver said. “I’m looked at as a monster and an animal. It was a bad time in my life.”