Kelvin Vickers gets life sentence for killing Rochester police officer, two others

Brooks Balcer's young children have questions, frequent questions.

"Why did that bad man not like Papa," they ask.

"Why didn't I get to tell him goodbye," they say of their grandfather, Rochester Police Officer Anthony "Maz" Mazurkiewicz. who was fatally shot in an ambush on July 21, 2022, while working a surveillance detail.

"I wish Tony did not go to work that night," Mazurkiewicz's daughter, Balcer, said in court Thursday at the sentencing of Kelvin Vickers Jr.

Vickers, 22, in October was convicted of the murder of Mazurkiewicz and two city men, Richard Collinge and MyJel Rand, in a separate shooting.

County Court Judge Julie Hahn Thursday sentenced Vickers to multiple life without parole sentences for the murders. She noted the "profound loss" suffered by the families and friends of the slain, people who lost loved ones, Hahn said, because of Vicker's "violent and sadistic actions."

A full courtroom

The courtroom was standing-room-only, filled with family of the slain and local law enforcement.

Addressing the court, Collinge's mother, Nikki Siplin, told of the daily aches in the aftermath of her son's murder, who, with Rand, was killed the night before Mazurkiewicz.

Siplin said she always spoke to her son, an aspiring rapper, several times a day.

"I don't have any hate in my heart," said Siplin, who said her son was en route to a music-related event when killed and was not involved in the drug war that sparked several days of violence in a northeast city neighborhood.

"I have a lot of anger and hurt," she said. Two other men are also accused of roles in the murders of Collinge and Rand, and their trial is scheduled to begin in mid-March.

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Defense lawyer Michael Schiano said he thinks there are appellate issues to pursue with Vickers' conviction.

One of the sentences of life without parole arises from the murder of Mazurkiewicz. That verdict required the jury to determine that Vickers either knew or clearly should have known that the targets of his ambush were police.

Mazurkiewicz and his partner, Officer Sino Seng, were conducting surveillance in an undercover van when shot. Seng was wounded in the attack.

Did Vickers know they were cops?

Late last year, federal prosecutors alerted the Monroe County District Attorney's Office that it had statements from an individual who'd been with Vickers before the ambush that could raise questions about whether Vickers thought he was targeting police.

When ambushed, the two officers were detailed to the neighborhood as part of a police "tactical unit" looking for a car linked to a spate of drug-related violence. The tactical unit is often tasked with responses to areas where violence has escalated.

On July 20, 2022, Collinge and Rand were fatally shot and another man injured on North Clinton Avenue. Vickers, Deadrick Fulwiley, and Raheim Robinson were accused of murder and attempted murder in those crimes. Vickers was tried separately.

Police found Vickers hiding in a crawlspace in an abandoned home near where Mazurkiewicz was killed and Seng wounded. A 9 mm handgun showed traces of Vickers' DNA and was linked to the violence through ballistics testing.

The gun was wrapped in clothing suspected to be Vickers.

Vickers, a Boston resident, was brought to Rochester by one faction in the battle over marijuana trafficking.

On Thursday, District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Vickers left a Massachusetts prison within two months of the July 2022 murders. He'd served a weapons sentence.

"Clearly this defendant has no respect for the law," Doorley said.

Speaking in court Thursday, Mazurkiewicz's widow, Lynn Mazurkiewicz, also spoke of her loss. Her husband's spirit was with his former colleagues as they hunted down the killer of Mazurkiewicz and others, she said.

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"They, his brothers and sisters, were going to get you," she said.

The cuffs used for Vickers when arrested were those from her husband, she said. Those same cuffs were placed on Vickers when he was convicted.

"I want you ... to know nothing but emptiness and the walls of a cell," Lynn Mazurkiewicz said to Vickers.

Vickers did not speak at his sentencing. Schiano said he advised Vickers not to speak because of forthcoming appeals.

— Gary Craig is a veteran reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle, covering courts and crime and more. He enjoys arts coverage as well, recognizing its richness and vitality to the Rochester region. He is the author of two books, including "Seven Million: A Cop, a Priest, a Soldier for the IRA, and the Still-Unsolved Rochester Brink's Heist."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Kelvin Vickers sentenced for murder of Rochester NY officer, two others