SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - A 29-year-old high school math teacher wept Tuesday as he was sentenced to four years in state prison for robbing a suburban Syracuse bank to pay his gambling debts.
With family and friends filling the first two rows of the courtroom, Mark Gurniak said he took full responsibility for his actions and apologized for the emotional pain and stress he put bank employees through and the disappointment he caused his students, past and present.
"I know I brought this on with my own actions," said Gurniak.
But Gurniak said he was most sorry for the pain he caused his family.
By being in jail, Gurniak said he had missed his daughter's second birthday and the birth of his second daughter. When he started to describe his older daughter singing "Twinkle Twinkle" to him over the phone, Gurniak had to stop for a minute to regain his composure.
Gurniak, of Minoa, pleaded guilty in August to second-degree robbery. He admitted using a 12-gauge shotgun when he robbed the Chase Bank in Minoa in May.
He was originally charged with first-degree robbery, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in state prison. But he was indicted on a lesser second-degree charge carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison because the gun he used in the holdup was unloaded and had a trigger lock that made it inoperable during the heist.
"This is just a sad day, a sad day for you, a sad day for your family," said Judge William Walsh.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren LaPaglia asked for a five-year sentence, noting that despite being desperate over about $20,000 in gambling debts, "there were a lot of other things he could have done instead of robbing a bank."
LaPaglia told Walsh that none of the five employees in the bank at the time of the robbery knew the rifle was unloaded and locked.
She read the judge a letter from the teller from whom Gurniak demanded $50,000 in cash. Teller Erin Burns described how the traumatic event left her wary of strangers and wondering about her children's teachers.
Gurniak "did not just steal money, he stole my sense of security and my faith in the decency of unfamiliar faces," Burns wrote.
Defense lawyer Michael Spano urged Walsh to impose the minimum sentence of three and a half years in prison.
"He spent his life doing everything right," Spano said.
But a gambling addiction - "as powerful as any drug addiction" - clouded his judgment and led him to rob the bank, Spano said.
As a result of Gurniak's gambling, the bank foreclosed on his home and he will likely lose his $54,000-a-year job at Cicero North Syracuse High School, where he had taught 11th grade for six years, the lawyer said. Gurniak has been suspended while his case was pending and still faces a disciplinary hearing, district officials said.
Outside court, Jessica Gurniak said she was angry and disappointed by her husband's conduct but loved him and would stand by him.
"What he did was wrong ... but missing his children's upbringing, to me that's sentence enough," she said. "As long as he gets help, we are there for him. We love him."
