A Virginia man who ran over his ex-prosecutor father before hacking him to death with an ax will spend 30 years in prison for the November 2017 slaying.
The Chesterfield Observer reported that Frank X. Altimari, now 32, followed his father and stepmother, Nicholas Altimari, 61, and Felipita Altimari, home from a restaurant to run them over. He continued the attack on his father, striking the man 43 times with a double-banded ax, leaving him to die in the driveway.
“The world would be a better place without my dad in it,” Frank said at the time of his arrest, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The outlet reported that Frank had bought the murder weapon from Lowe’s shortly before the fatal attack. Detectives reportedly found the bloodied ax in his trunk alongside a pair of blood-stained gloves and a receipt for the ax.
Frank pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and malicious wounding a year after the slaying in an agreement with prosecutors but sentencing was delayed until February as the judge dealt with questions surrounding his mental health. While he had a history of mental illness and two psychiatric professionals diagnosed him with a schizoaffective disorder, the court determined there wasn’t enough evidence to support that he was mentally ill at the time of the attack, according to the Observer.
“There is no evidence that the defendant did not know the wrongfulness of his actions,” Chesterfield Circuit Court Judge David Johnson said.
The judge sentenced him to 40 years for second-degree murder and 20 years for malicious wounding, to run concurrently. Thirty years of the sentence on the second-degree murder charge was suspended. Frank will be on probation for life following his release from prison.
While Frank’s legal counsel said they believe their client’s mental health didn’t get fair consideration, they said an appeal is unlikely.
Defense attorney Ali Amirshahi told the Observer of Frank, “He was sick and he hid it. He hid it well.”
[Featured image: Frank X. Altimari/WWBT, Nicholas Altimari/LinkedIn]
