Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS Assistant Attorney General Erin Fitzgerald holds up an autopsy photo of shooting victim Brandon Kluz for Judge David Anderson during Thursday's sentencing hearing for Bryson Peluso. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

MANCHESTER – Bryson Peluso, wearing an orange jump suit and a face mask, rose slowly from his chair at the defense table, glanced around a silent courtroom, took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on a certain group of people seated together in the gallery.

“I’m truly sorry … from the bottom of my heart,” Peluso began, his voice breaking. “I would change places with Brandon in a second if I could … I’m so sorry this happened.”

Peluso, now 30 and facing nearly a dozen years, at least, in State Prison, directed those remarks at family members and friends of Brandon Kluz, who was 23 when he died in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning 2018 of a single gunshot wound to his chest.

It was Peluso who pointed the 9 mm handgun at Kluz and pulled the trigger at point-blank range that fateful night, ultimately taking a life “full of love, friends, hopes, dreams …,” Kluz’s mother, Monica, said when it came her turn to address the court.

About an hour later, just before noon Thursday, Monica Kluz and close to two dozen other people who gathered in Judge David Anderson’s courtroom at Hillsborough County Superior Court North listened to Anderson impose a State Prison sentence of 14-30 years for Peluso, who pleaded guilty in December to one count of manslaughter in connection with Kluz’s death.

Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS With an enlarged photo of shooting victim Brandon Kluz in the background, Kluz's brother, Tony, is comforted by a family member during Thursday's sentencing hearing for Bryson Peluso, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Kluz's death. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

The sentence is just a bit less than the 15-30 year sentence prosecutors had asked Anderson to impose.

Peluso agreed to plead guilty to the manslaughter charge as part of an agreement his lawyer, Attorney Sven Wiberg, worked out with prosecutors.

Peluso had initially been charged with, and later indicted on, two counts of second-degree murder, one of which accused him of “knowingly” causing Kluz’s death, and the other, of “recklessly” causing his death.

Meanwhile, Wiberg, citing a series of mitigating factors and arguing that Peluso never intended to kill Kluz, nor did he make plans to shoot and kill him, asked Anderson for a 4-8 year State Prison sentence.

One of the conditions of the agreement calls for Peluso to receive 897 days of credit for time already served, meaning that, barring any disciplinary or other issues that could affect his sentence, he will serve a net minimum sentence of just under 11 1/2 years.

Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS An emotional Bryson Peluso, accompanied by his lawyer, Attorney Sven Wiberg, listens to victim impact statements being read during his sentencing hearing Thursday in Superior Court. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

He must also pay up to $30,000 restitution to the state’s Victim Compensation Fund, which will be used to help Kluz’s family recover funeral costs and unanticipated expenses related to his death.

Ahead of announcing his decision, Anderson briefly reviewed the factors he considered in determining the sentence. “I accept the arguments that it was not an intentional act,” he said, but the degree of recklessness involved is another story.

“Not once, but twice, (Peluso) put this pistol in front of someone,” Anderson said, referring to an earlier confrontation at the party in which Peluso brandished the gun. “That just strikes me as about as reckless as it gets.”

While the nature of the crime, Anderson said, “goes to the highest level of a manslaughter charge,” he said he also took under consideration his belief “that (Peluso’s) remorse is genuine … I also think it’s important that he tried to do CPR at the scene.”

The emotion palpable in the courtroom throughout most of the three-hour hearing peaked as Suzanne DeSchuiteneer, Peluso’s mother, neared the conclusion of her remarks.

Recalling how her son and Kluz often described themselves as “brothers from different mothers,” DeSchuiteneer turned to face Kluz’s family and friends.

“I loved Memo,” she said, using Kluz’s widely known nickname. “I knew him well. He was a fixture in my house.

“I’m very sorry. I loved your son very much,” DeSchuiteneer managed through tears. With that she abruptly left the podium and walked toward Monica Kluz, who met her halfway, and the two embraced.

Natasha Mossey, Peluso’s fiancee and the mother of their 4-year-old son, focused on “how close” Peluso and Kluz and their families are.

The two, along with a third friend, “were annoyingly inseparable at times,” Mossey said, describing their “strong bond” and their “passion for the outdoors, fishing, cars and skateboarding.”

She called the shooting “horrific, ever traumatizing,” but “this was not a malicious act, nor intentional.

“Bryson will suffer with this mistake his entire life.”

The “sadness and sorrow” that remain, and the “segregation and resentment in our community,” Mossey added, “are not what Brandon would have wanted.”

The night Kluz was killed, Monica Kluz told the court, she woke up in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning to the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

“I thought someone was giving Brandon a ride home, but when I looked out, I saw a police cruiser in my driveway,” she began.

Kluz said her other son answered the door. He greeted a police officer and a woman who identified herself as a victim’s advocate and invited them in.

They said they were there “to let you know, that at 1:11 a.m. this morning, Brandon was shot and killed at a home in Amherst,” Kluz recalled one of them saying.

“I sat there trying to absorb what I just heard … I was numb. After they left I just sat there, broken.”

Kluz said she and her surviving son just sat for awhile “trying to process” what happened, then drove to her sister’s house to break the news.

Her sister greeted her with “what’s up?” Kluz said. “I just knelt down and cried.”

Next, the sisters faced the task of telling their mother, who lives with Kluz’s sister, what happened.

“We had to tell our 90-year-old mother that her grandson was gone.

“That instead of preparing Thanksgiving dinner, we’d be preparing for a funeral.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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