A former US Army medic who pleaded guilty to a hate crime for vandalizing a Colorado mosque committed suicide over the weekend, just one day after his sentencing.
Joseph Giaquinto, 36, was found dead on Saturday at a Motel 6 in Fort Collins.
Police say he took his own life on Friday, one day after he was sentenced to three years in wellness court and six months of work release for throwing rocks and a Bible through the windows of the Islamic Center of Fort Collins.
Prosecutors said the former Army medic’s actions escalated to a hate crime because they were deliberate.
Former US Army medic Joseph Giaquinto, 36 (pictured left and right), who pleaded guilty to a hate crime for vandalizing a Colorado mosque, has committed suicide
Hate crime: In this Sunday, March 26, 2017, still image from a video surveillance camera, Giaquinto is shown vandalizing the Islamic Center of Fort Collin near Colorado State University
Police say Giaquinto took his own life at this Motel 6 in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Friday and was discovered dead the next day
The defense argued Giaquinto was suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress and alcohol abuse disorders, reported The Coloradoan.
His lawyer Heather Siegel said the act was a crime of location since he lived near the mosque. She said he was drunk and was later ‘horrified’ to learn what he had done.
Giaquinto pleaded guilty on December 18, 2017, to a felony charge of criminal mischief and a misdemeanor charge of bias-motivated crime, or a hate crime.
Soldier: Giaquinto was a combat medic who served eight years in Iraq and Korea
The plea deal stipulated that he be sentenced to three years of wellness court, where defendants receive therapy and psychiatric treatment while under supervised probation rather than serving time in prison.
The suspect’s father, Michael Giaquinto, told The Coloradoan his son was a combat medic who served eight years in Iraq and Korea and moved in 2016 to Fort Collins.
On March 26, 2017, police said Giaquinto threw two large rocks through windows of the Islamic Center of Fort Collins, as well as a New Testament Bible. The Bible was found among the shattered glass in the mosque’s prayer room.
The Islamic Center’s president, Tawfik Aboellail, said the man also tried to break into the mosque, but he did not get inside.
Police had released surveillance footage of the crime in the hopes of identifying Giaquinto. It showed the man, wearing a hoodie, picking up a paving stone and walking away, then kicking a door.
Giaquinto hurled two rocks and a Bible through the windows of this mosque, located near his home in Fort Collins, Colorado
Final photo: Giaquinto is seen with his defense lawyer after sentencing at the Larimer County Justice Center on Thursday, January 4
According to an arrest affidavit, Giaquinto acknowledged damaging the mosque. Investigators said they also found items at the man’s apartment that linked him to the vandalism.
Aboellail, the mosque’s leader, released a statement to The Coloradoan on Monday expressing condolences to Giaquinto’s family.
‘As our prophet taught us by example, we grieve the loss of Mr. Giaquinto’s life as we sincerely hoped he would have gotten the help he needed and deserved,’ Aboellail wrote. ‘Our thoughts are with his family and we hope that they might find peace and comfort.’