Ripoli, 46, has been free since posting $400,000 bail 18 months ago and walked out of the Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly yesterday after making his plea. The former county health official faces a prison term of 18 years. He would have to serve 15 years and four months before being eligible for parole.
Superior Court Judge James A. Almeida set sentencing for July 6, but said it could happen sooner if a presentencing report was completed quickly. The prosecutor did not object to Ripoli's remaining free until sentencing, noting that he would have been free during the trial, which was expected to last three weeks.
The agreement almost fell apart in court when Ripoli said, "I don't remember doing it," after James A. Ronca, first deputy county prosecutor, asked whether he had pointed the gun at Brenda Ripoli. Ripoli also hesitated for an unnerving 20 seconds after defense attorney Edward Wiercinski posed a similar question.
"I don't remember anything about when I fired the gun," Ripoli said when pressed by Almeida about his pause.
"I'm not ready to accept this plea agreement," Almeida said, sending a shock wave through the courtroom and lawyers from both sides into a huddle.
The deal survived when Ripoli answered "no" to this question from Wiercinski: "Did you accidentally shoot Brenda Ripoli?"
Ronca told the judge at the beginning of the hearing: "We are confident of a conviction in this . . . but conscious of the fact it would be an extremely unpleasant trial for the surviving family members of the victim. . . . They have suffered enough."
The defense had planned to argue during the trial that Ripoli had no intent to kill his 40-year-old wife on April 8, 1999, but that a long-term addiction to Xanax, a prescription antianxiety drug, had caused him to suffer a psychotic episode.
