Teenager who murdered man he was trying to carjack in Gates gets 20 years to life

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) – The teenager who shot and killed a man he was trying to carjack, just got sent to prison for 20 years to life. Edgar Tolentino Jr. was sentenced by Family Court Judge Stacey Romeo Monday afternoon.

The family of Richard Sciascia emerged from the courtroom with some sense of closure.

Brean: "When you heard the judge hand down that sentence, what kind of feelings and emotions were you experiencing?"

Emily Austin, Sciascia’s stepdaughter: "Just a kind of closure and relief today."

Emily Austin is Sciascia’s step-daughter. Tonya Galbraith is one of his nieces.

"I want to believe that everybody is inherently good," Galbraith said. "But I’m struggling with that now."

Tolentino Jr. is 17 years old now. He was 16 when he and his friend of the same age, Anthony Jacobs, killed Sciascia as they tried to carjack him. When he pled guilty in June, Tolentino said he and Jacobs targeted Sciascia because they thought they saw cash in his car. They tracked Sciascia to Buell Road in Gates and then cut in front of his car to force Sciascia to stop. Tolentino said he pulled out his Glock weapon with a 30-round magazine and ordered Sciascia out of the car. When Sciascia’s car started to back up, Tolentino admitted he fired twice through the window.

"It was completely avoidable," prosecutor Matthew Schwartz said. "It was a tragedy in the biggest sense of the word."

In court today, Tolentino read an apology letter to the Sciascia family.

Emily Austin: "He wanted us to understand that he understood his sentence and why he was there in the first place and that he was sorry."

Brean: "And do you accept that apology?"

Austin: "Ah, not yet. It’ll come."

"I have mixed feelings. We all miss our uncle very much. He was like another father to us," Grace Garcia said, one of Sciascia’s nieces. "So we want to forgive some day, you know? At this point, I don’t think I could forgive him."

"He apologized to the family. He reiterated his taking of responsibility if you will for his actions that day," Schwartz said. "It was a very short message but he did apologize."

Jacobs gets sentenced Wednesday. His plea gets him 15 years in prison.