Bayside Shooter Gets 384 Years

A 38-year-old former brick-layer last week was sentenced to 384 years in prison for his 2006 shooting spree that left a man dead in Bayside and wounded several others, the Queens district attorney said.

Matthew Coletta of Woodhaven was convicted in November following a four-week trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

He was found guilty of second-degree murder, 13 counts of attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance, the DA said.

The defendant, who was unemployed at the time of the shootings, drove a green Cadillac around the streets of Queens on Aug. 25, 2006.

He was armed with a 9-mm. Ruger semiautomatic pistol, which he fired at a total 14 people, one of whom was an off-duty police lieutenant, the DA said.

Coletta shot several times at a red Toyota minivan on the Cross Island Parkway near Bell Boulevard, killing Long Island's Todd Upton, 51, who was riding in the front passenger seat, Brown said.

The victim's wife, Mary Upton, 49, and daughter, Erin, 19, were also in the car, but neither of them were injured, the DA said.

The defendant also fired at a 46-year-old Maspeth man walking his dog at the intersection of 59th Place and 56th Drive, striking him in the knee as well as at a black livery cab along 48th Avenue in Long Island City.

He also shot at a 22-year-old Hempstead man and a friend who were standing outside a Chinese restaurant on 114th Street at Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park, striking one of the men in the leg.

Around 10:20 p.m., Coletta fired at a 22-year-old man and his 25-year-old sister near Forest Park, missing both of them. He also took aim at a red minivan on the Whitestone Expressway, but did not hit either of its passengers, as well as at a 39-year-old man existing the Van Wyck Expressway into College Point.

He fired at a total of 14 people during the course of his spree, including Detective Dominick Sartori, of the 109th Precinct.

District Attorney Brown said that while the sentence, "serves as a measure of justice for the defendant's victims and their families, it cannot, regrettably, undo the immense pain and suffering that he caused during his violent six-hour rampage in which he drove around Queens County randomly firing at individuals standing on the sidewalk or traveling in vehicles."

"His actions have forever changed the lives of those with whom he crossed paths during his deadly shooting spree. As a result, he has forfeited his right to live in a free society," the DA said.