Man who shot ex 14 times sentenced to up to 45 years, despite judge's objections

The family of LaRosa Gonzales - and even the judge - yesterday told Willie Scott that shooting his ex-girlfriend 14 times amounted to first-degree murder.

In Pennsylvania, that would carry an automatic life-in-prison sentence without the chance for parole.

But the Common Pleas jury that heard Scott's case last month found him guilty of the lesser crime of third-degree murder and of possessing an instrument of crime.

A visibly upset Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes yesterday sentenced Scott, 30, to 18 1/2 to 45 years in prison and ordered him to pay $6,200 in restitution to cover funeral costs.

Before Hughes announced her order, defense attorney David Rudenstein, in lobbying for a sentence as low as seven-and-a-half years, said Scott was a decent man with no prior record who snapped and did a terrible thing during an argument about being able to see his child.

Hughes demanded to know how 14 gunshots is worth just seven-and-a-half years behind bars.

"When you blow a person's brains out with their 4-year-old child sitting next to them, 18 inches away, it's first [degree murder]. But, hey, the jury disagreed," Hughes said.

After a Feb. 21, 2009, argument in the parking lot of a North Philadelphia KFC/Taco Bell, Scott riddled Gonzales with bullets as she sat in her car with the couple's daughter - now age 6 - and a 16-year-old female friend.

Gonzales, 24, also left behind a son, now 10 years old, from a previous relationship.

"I have to take care of my two grandchildren because this man took their mother away," Cecilia Gonzales, the victim's mother, tearfully told the court. "I hope he gets everything he deserves."

"There is nothing that can bring back little Rosie. I feel cheated," said LaRose Armstead, the victim's aunt.

"Guess what? You have to answer to the Lord," she told Scott. "You should have gotten death."

Scott, who once worked in the dietary department at Temple University Hospital, took several minutes to say that he could not explain his actions.

"Your Honor, there's really no explanation I can give," said Scott, handcuffed and wearing a gray prison sweatshirt.

"There's nothing I can say to her family. Regardless of what they think of me, I really loved LaRosa."