DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A career criminal with a rap sheet dating back 40 years was sentenced in absentia to 25 years to life for the murder of his girlfriend at her Chelsea apartment, a judge decided Monday.
Robert Camarano, 62, a drug addict who represented himself throughout the bizarre trial, refused to leave his courthouse holding cell to face his sentencing for the second-degree murder of Michele Hyams, who was 60 when she was killed in 2008.
Camarano was charged with strangling and stabbing Hyams, a former high school acquaintance whom he had been dating and living with for several years.
Prosecutors said Hyams caught Camarano stealing her jewelry so he could pawn it for cash. He killed her during a fight over the alleged theft, according to the DA.
Hyams' sister, Jamie Clifford, said she realized in hindsight there were "tell-tale signs" that her sister had been in an abusive relationship with Camarano, who had 29 arrests and several felony convictions before the murder.
"The only thing that would make my life feel a little bit safe, a little bit better is that I know that [Michele's] murderer is behind bars and dies there," Clifford said in a recorded statement played in court.
Clifford, who lives in California but came to New York to testify at his trial, described her sister as a smart and lively woman whose life was dampened by her relationship with the man who would eventually kill her.
"I just hope that somebody like [Camarano] will never be able to come out on the streets ever again," Clifford said.
Beth Kraimer, one of Hyams' friends, attended the entire trial as part of a group of friends and neighbors who hoped to see justice served against Camarano.
"Thank God this is finally over," Kraimer said. "This is such a relief."
