Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - Showing little emotion, Stacey Castor was sentenced Thursday morning to over 50 years-to-life in prison for the murder of her husband and attempted murder of her daughter.
"I've seen serial killers, contract killers ... but Stacey Castor, you are in a class by yourself," Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey said in remarks made before sentencing Castor to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of her husband David Castor, and 25 years in prison for the attempted murder of Ashley Wallace.
Castor showed no emotion during the half-hour long appearance, which included statements from her daughter Ashley Wallace, David Castor Jr., and Assistant District Attorney Christine Garvey.
When given the chance to make a statement to the court, Stacey Castor declined, as did her Defense Attorney Charles Keller.
The people who once loved her and the people whose lives she devastated had plenty to say. Ashley Wallace and David Castor Jr. spoke first, and fought back tears as they recounted the horrors of the past few years.
As she did for the entire trial, Stacey Castor showed no emotion while many in the courtroom struggled to maintain theirs.
Castor barely acknowledged her daughter Ashley Wallace who gathered the strength to tearfully address the court with her sister Bree by her side. “I never knew what hate was until now,” Wallace said. “Even though I do hate her, I still love her at the same time. That bothers me, it so confusing. How can you hate someone and love them at the same time, I just wish that she would say sorry for everything she did including all the lies,” Wallace said.
Stacey Castor said nothing.
“As horrible as it makes me feel, this is goodbye mom. As hard as you tried, I survived and I will survive because now I'm surrounded by people that love me,” a tearful Wallace told the court. “I'm going to do good things in this world despite making me in every sense of the word an orphan."
The courtroom was standing room only, a very rare site in Onondaga County Court, there were only a few there who could feel what Ashley Wallace and David Castor Jr. are feeling now; they really never knew each other before the murder, but will now be forever joined by it.
"Your honor, Stacey Castor is a monster and a threat to society,” Castor Jr. said. “Mr. Fitzpatrick said there's a ladder for the level of criminal and she is at the ceiling and this is true, she has created so much pain and death with this family."
Castor, Jr. said outside court just how tough it was to find the right words to say about the woman that killed his father. "The amount of pain that Stacey R. Castor put our family through is indescribable and immeasurable, she tortured my dad.”
“I've cried enough tears about this and I don't want to cry anymore, I just want it all to go away, but I know it will never go away,” Wallace said. “I have to live with this the rest of my life."
Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey had some harsh remarks for Castor before she was sentenced. “In my 34 years as a judge and a lawyer, I've seen serial murderers and contract killers, but I have to say Ms. Castor, you are in a class by yourself.”
“Unlike many defendants who pass through my courtroom, you're not just a danger to the general public you're a danger to the people who love you and are closest to you,” Judge Joseph Fahey said in his remarks before sentencing. “I believe that the sentence that I'm about to impose will remove that danger once and for all."
A jury found Castor guilty of killing Castor Jr. and attempting to kill Ashley Wallace back in February. It took the jury four days to reach a verdict.
Ashley Wallace reaction outside court
After the sentencing Ashley Wallace and her sister spent a few minutes with Dan Cummings. Dan tells us with the stress of the trial now over, Ashley pulled herself together to talk about the mother she never really new and the fresh start she's now ready for.
As a little girl, even as a teen, Ashley Wallace never once suspected that her mom could do such harm. “Not a day in my life. Never. She was like my best friend. Stacy. Yeah, she really was. And she just ruined that trust.”
In the courtroom Thursday, she finally let it all out. Afterwards, she told me how difficult it was to read that statement out loud. “It was really hard, I was really nervous. I got to speak my mind and I didn't get to do that when I was testifying. But it felt really good at the same time. It did. It was a relief.”
“We're just happy that it's over. We really are. Now that I know everybody knows I didn't do it, it's just ten times lighter,” said Ashley and Bree Wallace.
When asked whether the two will be able to move on? “I already have. We already have. We already have. Thanks to my boyfriend, and their family, we've moved on. We started moving on the day we moved into their house.”
Ashley talked about the day she was poisoned inside her family’s home on Wetzel Road, the same home where Stacey Castor murdered David Castor. She describes how she felt when she learned what her mother had done. “I felt betrayed. Like, she just, a bond that you should never break, is a bond between your children and a mother and she completely broke that bond, when she did what she did,” Wallace said.
“I don't want to talk to her ever again. I really don't. I really have nothing to say to her,” said Wallace. “I’m glad she'll be away for a very long time, and she can't hurt anybody ever again.”
