, with Cullen’s record, “you would think the system would be able to put together that this was a troubled individual.” Not doing so, Corzine and fellow New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg said, was “a complete and utter failure of the healthcare system.”Cullen worked out a plea deal with prosecutors in which he would help investigators identify victims in order to avoid the death penalty, and pleaded guilty in 2004.to a relative of a friend on New York.
Cullen, angered by the postponement, said he would no longer cooperate with police, and tried to avoid appearing for sentencing,“We don’t care if Charles Cullen donates a kidney to anyone,” said New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey. “He’s either going to die in jail or pursuant to the death penalty. It doesn’t matter to us.”
Cullen ultimately relented, and was sentenced in March 2006. Victims’ relatives called him “a demon, a coward, a monster, a waste of life” and “Satan’s Son,”. Cullen never looked at them, and appeared to be asleep at the defendant’s table. While nearly silent during two years’ worth of court appearances, Cullen became frustrated at a later sentencing in Lehigh County court. There, he accused the judge of bias for granting a newspaper interview, and repeated the phrase “Your honor needs to step down” more than 500 times —. He did not explain or apologize to victims’ family members, and closed his eyes while they read victim impact statements.
“It represented his effort not to be present at the time of sentencing,” Cullen’s Pennsylvania public defender Gary Asteak said. “It showed a lack of dignity on his part.”