Sunnyside Murderer gets 37 years

In a plot straight out of CSI, Gary McGurk, an Irish national and criminology student who confessed to killing a crime laboratory technician for the NYPD, was sentenced to 37 years in jail on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the murder.

The distraught family of murder victim Michelle Lee were in court to express their fury at the 24-year-old killer who admitted to murder and tampering with evidence.

Lee was an NYPD criminologist. She was found dead in her Sunnyside, Queens apartment in April 2009. Her head was covered in a plastic wrap to limit bleeding. McGurk later admitted he hit Lee in the head four times with a hammer, stabbing her in the neck, and burned her body with an iron.

Investigators said McGurk then posed the body in a certain way attempt to throw detectives off track

McGurk, who is originally from County Tyrone, moved to America at a young age with his parents.

His father, Aiden McGurk, was involved with the IRA in Northern Ireland.

In court McGurk told the victim’s family he was sorry.

“I myself am still coming to terms for what I have done and I make no excuses. I have taken away the life of a very special young woman. I don’t ask forgiveness. I don’t think I deserve it,” he said.

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