A ‘remorseless’ millionaire who killed her autistic 8-year-old son at a luxury hotel has been jailed for 18 years.
New York socialite Gigi Jordan, 54, was sentenced for first-degree manslaughter after using a crusher and syringe to administer an overdose of prescription pills to young Jude Mirra.
Jude died at the Peninsula Hotel on the city’s Fifth Avenue in 2010 in a case which shocked the United States.
Her attorneys argued throughout the two-month trial that she had killed the boy in an act of mercy to prevent the boy’s biological father from sexually abusing him.
Prosecutors said this scenario was based on fiction – and instead she killed him because she couldn’t accept his autism.
They argued that Jordan carefully planned the death of her son after traveling the country to find a cure for his autism.
But the jury later accepted the defense’s claim that Jordan had acted under extreme emotional distress.
They found her guilty of manslaughter rather than the top murder charge sought by prosecutors.
Judge Charles Solomon of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan handed down a sentence that was close to the maximum of 25 years’ prison under New York guidelines.
He said he was mystified by the mother’s lack of remorse.
“It’s very difficult for me to understand the defendant,” Solomon said.
“I certainly would think that I would hear something from the defendant expressing remorse about what she did – something.”
In a 30-minute statement read to the court, Jordan appealed for leniency and again said she had been acting in her son’s best interests.
“I love Jude more than anything in this world,” the former pharmaceuticals executive and self-made millionaire said.
“I believe that he lived and died in unbelievable agony.”
Even though Mirra was unable to express himself well, Jordan’s attorneys argued, he had told his mother that he was being sexually abused by his father, Emil Tzekov.
Tzekov, a yoga instructor who became Jordan’s second ex-husband, has denied the accusations.
Jordan said she feared she would be unable to protect her boy because her first husband, Philadelphia businessman Raymond Mirra Jr, planned to have her killed or institutionalized, and Tzekov would gain custody of her son.
Outside court Jordan’s attorney, Norman Siegel, expressed disappointment with the sentence and said Jordan would appeal.