Bronx Man Sentenced in Murder of Holocaust Survivor

The 90-year-old murder victim survived 3 Nazi concentration camps

A Bronx man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Wednesday for the brutal murder of a  90-year-old Holocaust survivor in an Upper East Side robbery .

Felix Brinkmann, who lived through the terrors of three Nazi concentration camps, was found bound and beaten to death in his E. 65th Street home in July of 2009. He was tortured when he refused to open his safe for the intruders.

At his sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court, Aljulah Cutts continued to maintain his innocence.  "Despite what the DA says...I tried to stay as clean as I can," Cutts said.  "I know I did not commit this heinous crime." Upon the reading of the sentence, Cutts' mother ran out of the courtroom crying.

The defense attorney says he plans to appeal the decision, however, Judge Juan Merchan was certain in his sentencing that the jury "indeed made the right decision."

Prosecutors played a video statement  of Brinkmann's son, Rick Brinkmann, detailing his father’s active life and pleading to the judge to give the maximum sentence.  In an emotional speech, he spoke of how his father survived the Holocaust, including such torture tactics as standing in below zero temperatures in only his underwear for more than four hours.

He ends his recorded statement saying "I don't know how you can do that to anyone, let alone anyone more than 60 years older than you."

 

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