Personal assistant sentenced to 40-to-life in murder and dismemberment of his tech CEO boss

• Tyrese Haspil was sentenced to 40 years to life on Tuesday for murdering NYC tech CEO Fahim Saleh.
• The DA had asked for 50 years to life, a term Haspil's lawyer called "a de facto life sentence."
• But in a surprise move, Haspil himself asked the judge for a life sentence.

A Manhattan judge on Tuesday sentenced a former personal assistant to 40 years to life in the murder, decapitation, and dismemberment of Fahim Saleh , the talented young tech CEO who was his former boss.

Tyrese Haspil was 21 when he ambushed and slaughtered the founder of Gokada, a Nigerian app-based delivery service, inside the tech executive's Manhattan condo four years ago. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, grand larceny, burglary, and concealment of a corpse.

The sentence means Haspil will be 61 before he could first apply for release from a New York parole board — a body that will have the power to keep him in prison until he dies.

But Haspil himself, addressing the judge from the defense table in a barely audible voice, asked that she throw away the key.

"Unlike my counsel, I don't think anything less than life without parole would be appropriate," he told New York Supreme Court Justice April Newbauer.

The judge decried the "brutally chilling, senseless murder" before shaving 10 years off the prosecutors' recommendation.

The sentence breaks down to 25-to-life on the murder itself, plus another 15 years for embezzling $400,000 from his victim, breaking into his condo, and dismembering his corpse.

Prosecutors did not ask for life without parole, the highest sentence that Newbauer could have pronounced. District Attorney Alvin Bragg promised when he took office that he would never seek life without parole.

In asking for 50-to-life, lead prosecutor Linda Ford had called Haspil remorseless and noted that the victim was conscious as he was tased and then fatally stabbed just inside his doorway. "Why are you doing this?" Haspil had testified his victim asked him.

Ford also read to the judge from a victim impact letter in which Saleh's sister noted the horrible damage the murder had on family, friends, and Gokada, which the sister said "fell into chaos and never recovered," ruining the livelihood for thousands of employees in Nigeria.

"I agonize every day to kill myself," the victim's father, Ahmed Saleh, told the judge, his hands and voice shaking as he told the judge of the ongoing impact of losing his only son.

"I wish it was possible to open up my heart and show you how much pain — how much pain," the father told the judge.

The victim's father and two sisters told the judge they wanted Haspil to die in prison.

Haspil's public defender, Sam Roberts, gave a lengthy sentencing statement in which he detailed his client's history of neglect and abuse and countered that even the 50-to-life term sought by prosecutors would be far too high.

"It is de facto life without parole," given the prison mortality rates among the long-term incarcerated, said Roberts, of New York City's Legal Aid Society.

Pretrial, prosecutors had said they would recommend Haspil be sentenced to 35 years to life, Roberts noted. And the judge sweetened the proffered plea deal, saying she'd sentence Haspil to just 33-to-life if the case didn't go to trial, the lawyer added.

In that context, the 50-to-life sentence recommended by prosecutors on Tuesday amounted to a surcharge against Haspil, punishing him over the decision to go to trial, Roberts said.

Haspil had hoped to convince a Manhattan jury this summer that he suffered from an extreme emotional disturbance and was guilty only of manslaughter. Jurors rejected defense arguments that Haspil believed he had no choice but to kill his boss because he was desperate to hide a $400,000 embezzlement and obsessed with lavishing gifts on his girlfriend.

"This is a trial tax and that's offensive to due process," Haspil's lawyer complained to Business Insider of prosecutors' decision to significantly up the ante, post trial, from their pre-trial offer of 35 years-to-life.

"Today, Tyrese Haspil is facing accountability for brutally murdering and decapitating Fahim Saleh, a kind, generous, and empathetic person who positively impacted the world," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who attended the sentencing.

"Even after the defendant stole from him to fund a lavish lifestyle, Mr. Saleh still gave him a second chance," Bragg said. "While today's sentence won't bring Mr. Saleh back, I hope it provides his family a sense of closure as they continue to mourn his painful loss."