BOSTON, Oct 14, 2015—Barbara Coyne was remembered by her family as a loving matriarch and fighter to the moment she was brutally murdered as the man who killed her was sentenced to life in prison today.
TIMOTHY KOSTKA (D.O.B.4/28/85) of South Boston was sentenced today after a Suffolk Superior Court jury on Friday found Kostka guilty of first-degree murder and home invasion for killing 67-year-old Coyne during a robbery of her East 7th Street home on April 16, 2012. Judge Mitchell Kaplan imposed a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole – the mandatory sentence for murder one – and a concurrent term of 20 to 25 years in prison on the offense of home invasion. Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight, chief of the DA’s Elders and Persons with Disabilities Unit, had asked Kaplan to impose the sentences to run consecutively.
During the course of the trial, Knight presented evidence and testimony to prove that Kostka broke into Coyne’s home on the morning of April 16, 2012, with the intention of stealing high-end fishing equipment from her son. Coyne encountered him as he rifled through her jewelry boxes and coins. The evidence showed that Kostka beat her and slashed her throat. He then continued to search the home for items of value and took items including about $100 worth of winning lottery tickets.
Coyne was found by her son and rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
An exhaustive investigation revealed Kostka’s fingerprints on two jewelry boxes and an envelope and DNA under the victim’s fingernails that proved to be a match to Kostka. Surveillance video from a nearby business captured Kostka cashing in the winning lottery tickets; witness statements proved that Kostka then used the money to purchase drugs.
“Today’s sentencing has brought justice, but it can never bring back Barbara Coyne or ease the pain that her murder has brought upon her family,” Conley said. “This was a brutal crime and a harrowing trial for her family to have to sit through. However, through the trial and the 3 ½ years since the murder, the Coyne family has displayed the same grace and dignity with which Barbara Coyne lived her life.”
Three generations of Coyne’s family delivered impact statements to the court prior to sentencing.
“She brought us through far too many family tragedies with nurturing and love. I know if you had ust asked her for help, she would have done it. She did it for everyone,” Coyne’s sister said , directing her statement to Kostka.
“I have never been more proud of my mother than I am right now. She fought for her home, for her sleeping granddaughter, and for her life,” Coyne’s son told the court in an emotional impact statement.
“She truly was strength and grace personified,” her granddaughter told the court. “Her generosity knew no bounds.”
Assistant District Attorney Nick Brandt second-seated Knight at trial. Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Kostka was represented by William Gens.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
