Rebecca Rosenberg, NY Post
A Manhattan judge Monday sentenced the last of three BASE jumpers who leaped off the World Trade Center and video recorded the stunt to community service as he blasted the daredevil for his lack of contrition.
“I don’t believe your client has shown remorse, and I believe that his actions, his words and his conduct certainly do not help deter and have not helped deter similar future behavior,” said Justice Juan Merchan. “Of the three defendants, none have shown more contempt for the process than your client.”
Marko Markovich, 28, sold T-shirts glorifying the jump to raise money for his legal defense and made disparaging comments on social media about the cops investigating the case.
“I’m truly sorry for the way I acted and the way I’ve been,” the skydive instructor told the judge. “If I had a chance to do it over again, I never would, I’m sorry.”
Merchan called the apology “convenient,” then sentenced Markovich to 300 hours of community service — substantially more than he gave his two co-defendants.
James Brady, 33, got 250 hours and Andrew Rossig, 34, got 200 hours for the death-defying plunge off the tower in September 2013. They each also had to pay a $2,000 fine.
Prosecutor Joseph Giovannetti asked the judge for a stiffer punishment of 16 days in jail and three years’ probation.
After their two-week trial that ended in June, Brady, Rossig and Markovich were convicted of two counts of reckless endangerment and illegal BASE jumping but acquitted of the top count of burglary. They faced up to a year in jail.
The BASE jumpers sneaked through a fence at 1 WTC, climbed the staircase to the top and leaped from the 1,776-foot skyscraper.
They were busted Feb. 17, after cops tracked them down through surveillance video.
