Kaitlynn Berman vomited in court after a judge handed her attacker an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for stabbing her 22 times.
Berman, whose three-year-old daughter was in the next room during the assault, learned the punishment Wednesday at a Bronx sentencing hearing for Christopher Joseph, 23. The term fell short of the 10 years prosecutors had requested and far below what Berman and her supporters had demanded.
Berman spent more than a month hospitalized and underwent multiple surgeries. She now lives with permanent nerve damage. She delivered a 15-minute victim impact statement directly to Joseph during the proceeding.
“You failed to take my life, and you won’t take away my future,” she said.
Bishop Boyde Singletary spoke to reporters, including NBC New York, after the hearing. “We are not satisfied. She is not satisfied, so overwhelmed that she threw up,” he said. “The woman has PTSD, she has nerve damage on both right hand and left hand, she has pain and trauma from the right side of her face. Her life is never the same.”
Singletary argued Joseph should have received “22 years to life – one year for each stabbing.” He also said the attacker showed “no remorse” for his actions.
Joseph remained quiet after the sentence was read.
Bronx Supreme Court Justice Timothy Lewis addressed Joseph directly from the bench. “I’m only hopeful that you find a way to become a different person and to do something positive when you get out, to in some way address what you did to Ms. Berman,” he said, adding that he hopes Joseph does not become a “hardened criminal who ends up spending his life in jail.”
The judge explained the reduced sentence by noting Joseph “is still a relatively young man,” according to a transcript.
Berman fired back at that reasoning in a Post interview. “I think it doesn’t matter if you have time to change your life around. I think it matters of what you already did. You need to suffer the consequences,” she said.
The assault occurred in Berman’s Bronx apartment last year. Joseph, an acquaintance, attacked her while her young daughter was in an adjacent room. Berman later recalled her fear during the violence: “I remember being in and out of consciousness thinking I was going to die,” she said at the hearing.
Joseph pleaded guilty in September to attempted murder in the second degree. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office had sought a 10-year sentence as part of the plea agreement. Joseph’s attorney argued for five years.
Berman was seen in tears of anger following the sentencing.