Dad gets 35 years for murdering 14-year-old son, mom (Queens, New York)

Notice that dad OTTO HERARTE tried to play the mental health card--but thankfully, nobody was buying.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2011/07/09/2011-07-09_queens_teen_forgives_dad_who_slit_throats_of_his_mom_and_bro_i_still_wish_the_be.html

Queens teen forgives dad who slit throats of his mom and brother: 'I still wish the best for you'
BY Thomas Zambito
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, July 9th 2011, 4:00 AM


A Queens teenager showed remarkable mercy Friday, publicly forgiving his scheming father for slitting the throats of his mother and kid brother.

A judge wasn't as soft-hearted, telling Otto Herrarte there was "no excuse" for the sickening crime and slapping him with a 35-year sentence.

Herrarte, 50, bowed his head and appeared to cry as his surviving son, David, 16, described how the double murder did away with the people he "loved most in the world."

"I'm your son and you're my father," said David, who wasn't home the night of the slayings.

"Even though you failed me, I still wish the best for you. We do have second chances. I want to be different from everybody else. I want to show people there is a God in this world.

"Every way that you made us suffer, you're going to pay for that before God almighty," David said. "I forgive you despite the things you did to hurt me. I forgive you from my heart."

He then returned to his seat in the courtroom, stifling tears.

Herrarte used a butcher knife to cut the throats of his sleeping wife, Edna, 55, and 14-year-old son, Daniel, in 2009.

He tried to blame it all on a murderous alter ego named Roberto, but his relatives say he really wanted to continue an affair with a fellow Helmsley Hotel employee.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter last month.

Herrarte told Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak he killed his wife and son because he was "in a bad place."

"It's particularly sickening to this court to visualize you slitting the throat of your 14-year-old son," Lasak said. "You want to tell me why you did that?"

"I was depressed," Herrarte told Lasak. "I was on drugs."

"That's no excuse," the judge said.

"You ripped a gaping hole in this family that will never be filled again, and for that your punishment will be down the road," Lasak said.

Edna Herrarte's sister, Maria Pur, offered Herrarte a Bible and a prayer card.

"The judge will be God himself," she told Herrarte. "There's not going to be attorneys there anymore, and you will not be able to lie or fool him."

Herrarte stuffed his loved ones' bodies in black plastic bags and tucked them in a closet at the family's Corona home before tidying up the murder scene and cleaning blood from the butcher knife.

Hours later, Herrarte told cops an alter ego named Roberto - a voice he said had been speaking to him since childhood - made him do it.

"I told him [Roberto] it was his time to go away, and he was mad and told me he was going to do this bad thing," Herrarte told cops.

Prosecutors said he had only himself to blame.

"You're dastardly, and you deserve every day in jail that you serve," said Assistant District Attorney Peter Lomp.