In 2011, a 95-year-old resident of an Upper West Side senior home was beaten and strangled to death by a maintenance worker; today, the man convicted for the senior citizen's death was sentenced to a life in prison.
Peter Lisi, a World War II veteran, was living in an apartment at the Williams Memorial Residence on West End Avenue in December of 2011. According to court documents, on December 23, Wilfred Matthews, a maintenance worker in the building, broke into his apartment, tried to strangle him with his hands and choked him to death with a cord. Matthews, 44, was caught a week later when cops caught him trying to use Lisi's MetroCard.
Matthews was found guilty of one count of murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree last month. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole today. "“This defendant’s actions brought a brutal end to Peter Lisi’s 95 years," Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance said in a statement. "“I hope that this verdict brings some measure of closure to the victim’s many loved ones, and a sense of safety to Mr. Lisi’s neighbors." Other members of the citizen home said Lisi was well-liked before his death. "He was a really sweet man," a resident told DNAinfo last year. "Any time we pass the table where he ate, we miss him."
