Sentencing is March 24th for five of the eight individuals charged in the gang-style murder of Nick Burdge in March 2020. Family members have submitted this Victim Impact Statement addressed to Judge Thomas Brown. They plan to read this statement to the court prior to sentencing of these five individuals as reported by The Evening Tribune. Below is the unedited family statement. Warning, the content is distressing and could be disturbing to some:
Your Honorable Judge Brown,
Thank you for taking the time to allow me to speak on behalf of our nephew Nick. To start off by saying we are sad is just a lack of better words. My family is crushed over Nicks horrific death. The nightmares and hole in our hearts and lives is beyond and words to say the least. Thoughts of our dear Nick enduring hours upon hours of physical and emotional pain from people he thought were his friends overwhelm our family. Knowing he cried out for us and we were not there to help his cries of pain haunt us daily. The question of why would anyone hurt our dear Nick. The pain of never hugging, talking or calling Nick again is a deep pain.
We would like to share with you the love and life Nick Had in the short years we had with him.
Nick fought for his life since he was two days old. He had to have surgery for birth defects and went through Dialysis five days a week through out his whole life. He fought for his life every day. He was clinically deceased for over ten minutes in 2019 in Wellsville and was medivacked to childrens in Buffalo where they saved his life. Nick was air lifted from Wellsville on four occasions from passing away from his illness. We as a family have all had Nick live with us to be able to provide comfort for him in his struggles that he faced while fighting for his life. It was very hard for us to only have one family member take care of him, so we all took turns to provide a happy stable home for him. Nicks Grandmother, our sister Debbie suffered a heart attack two days after his murder on March 25th the night we all had a candle light vigil for Nick, and then passed away less than a month later in April from a broken heart. She would look around her home and all she seen was Nicks belongings. Not only did we lose Nick from these defendants murdering him, we lost our sister, Nicks Grandmother. These defendants robbed Nick of the life he fought for since he was two days old.
Words can not express the pain and anguish our family and friends have endured since Nick was murdered. The defendants decision to take the life of a human being with no regards for the effect it may have on others is un imaginable, and for them to beg for mercy upon this court to provide them with an easy way out with a plea bargain is literally a smack in the face to Nicks memory and our family and his friends. But we have to respect the decisions that this court has come to. If our human race wasn’t in a pandemic your court room would be full of those people we are speaking of in this letter.
The brutal murder of Nick by the defendants is beyond words. There will be no more Holidays, No more Bitrhday parties, No more back yard gatherings or other family activities to share. The laughter, The hugs, The I Love Yous….Forever Gone. Our family is forever broken.
Compassion and Mercy are words commonly used by defendants in a court of law, However we ask Your Honor, how much compassion and mercy did Nick receive from these defendants as they brutally tortured him for hours upon hours and murdered him? We have sat right here in your Honors court room and listened to each one of these defendants plea bargain for mercy to them and describe how they had no mercy, no compassion while they brutally murdered Nick. Tortured for hours upon hours. As I stated before, we respect your decision for a plea bargain although we do not support it, we as a family throw our mercy upon this court and ask for compassion to hand down the maximum penalty to this plea bargain that is allowable by your Honorable.
In closing we wish to express our sincerest gratitude for allowing this opportunity of expression. We Remain,
Respectfully Submitted Nick Burdge’s Family
