Grandson of ex-Staten Island boro prez Molinaro gets 5 years in shooting case

A federal judge cut the troubled grandson of former Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro a break Wednesday, sentencing him to five years in prison after he shot his ex-girlfriend and nearly killed her.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis handed down the sentence in Brooklyn Federal Court, saying that despite the victim’s understandable anger, Steven Molinaro was making progress seeking real help for his drug addiction and childhood trauma.

“I’m going to take a chance with you, sir … and give you a chance to redeem your life, give you a chance to prove to the person you victimized that you really didn’t mean to do it,” Garaufis said, as Molinaro’s grandfather and family members watched. “I really hope that what I’m about to do is not my mistake.”

Steven Molinaro, 35, faced a possible nine to 11½ years in jail based on federal sentencing guidelines after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon and attempted obstruction of justice.

The younger Molinaro shot his then-22-year-old ex-girlfriend during an argument in his family’s Fort Wadsworth home on April 27, 2022, then tried to ditch the gun in a neighbor’s trash can.

He was confronting her over who she’d been seeing in the months since they’d broken up, and wanted to know who she met on a trip to Dubai, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta said. At one point, he produced a gun, cocked, it, and sat on her, pointing the gun at her head, then her chest, “and then he repeated that motion several times,” Gupta said.

Molinaro shot her in the chest, then called 911, saying she shot herself. He later told a responding officer that a mystery ex-boyfriend shot her and ran off, the prosecutor said. The bullet remains lodged in her body despite multiple surgeries.

“Steven Molinaro is one of the worst people I’ve ever met. He does not feel sorry for what he did. He only feels sorry that he got caught. He is a horrible person,” the victim said in a statement Gupta read in court Wednesday.

“I hate him and wish nothing but the worst for him because he almost killed me that day,” she added. “I think he should go to prison to make the world a better place.”

Despite Gupta’s contentions that Molinaro intended to kill her, Molinaro and his lawyer, Chad Seigel maintain that the shooting was accidental, and that he was high on drugs at the time.

“There’s not day that goes by that I don’t think about this. I’m haunted by it and I feel ashamed. I never meant to injure her, but I’ve got to take full responsibility for this. It was my fault,” Molinaro told the judge, choking up as his spoke. “My stupidity and my overall failures resulted in the harm of somebody that I really care about.”

At one point, the judge balked when Seigel referred to the shooting as “reckless horseplay” that resulted in the gun going off.

“It would seem that that’s not horseplay,” Garaufis shot back. “Once it’s cocked, there’s very little pressure that it takes to fire a weapon. … That’s a pretty clear sign that this is a person who is willing to shoot someone to get what he wants.”

Even so, Garaufis was moved by Molinaro’s struggles with his addiction, and the steps he’s taken while out on bail over the past 16 months to seek treatment, and that his family remains devoted to him. His grandfather put up $2.4 million of his property to secure a $5 million bond.

“Through all of this, his family has stayed by his side and attempted to help him, particularly his grandfather, who is a distinguished member of the New York community,” Garaufis said. “And that’s a double-edged sword for the defendant. It makes him, when he makes mistakes, a target, perhaps, of the media.”

Seigel talked about Molinaro’s childhood, how his father, Stephen Molinaro — James Molinaro’s son — was addicted to heroin. At age 11, Steven had to save his father from an overdose by calling 911 and sticking two fingers down his dad’s throat. In 2006, when he was still a teenager, he found his father dead of another overdose in his kitchen.

“Drugs have been the downfall of my life,” Molinaro said. “I realize I started using drugs to avoid the pain I was carrying, but the cure was worse than the disease … Even with treatment, I still struggle, but at least now I have greater clarity and strength.”

He’s required to surrender once the federal Bureau of Prisons decides where he’ll serve his sentence.

Molinaro, who has been in and out of trouble since 2006, worked out a plea deal for probation after assaulting a 14-year-old newspaper delivery boy — but he violated the terms after his victim reported that Molinaro glared at him from a car window, terrifying him.

Molinaro, then 18, went to trial on the probation violation in 2007, lost and was sentenced to five years in prison. He and his grandfather declined comment as they left the courtroom Wednesday.