A feeble-looking John H. Bunz had to be held up by two court officers after the 90-year-old stumbled getting from his wheelchair into his seat at the defense table Wednesday in a downtown courtroom.

It's hard to comprehend, but this is the same man who bludgeoned his 89-year-old wife to death with a hammer in a bloody attack during March in their Amherst apartment.

Bunz showed little emotion as he apologized for his crime shortly before receiving what some deemed a "death sentence" -- 17 1/2 years in prison -- in State Supreme Court.

"I'm extremely sorry about what happened," said Bunz, who turns 91 in November.

The retired Niagara Mohawk technician will become the second-oldest inmate in the New York State prison system when he begins serving his sentence.

It is a case that raises many questions about why someone of his age would commit such a vicious crime and how the judicial and correctional systems deal with the elderly.

"He defies the theories about criminal menopause," said Teresa A. Miller, a University at Buffalo law professor who studies New York State prisons. "People, as they get older, generally become less dangerous and less likely to offend."

Bunz pleaded guilty in July to first-degree manslaughter in the killing of Virginia H. Bunz, his wife of nearly 68 years, in the couple's apartment in the Amberleigh Retirement Community.

In interviews Wednesday, authorities offered new details about the attack, which occurred early on March 21.

Sometime after getting up that morning, Virginia and John Bunz got into a quarrel over "her health care issues," said Amherst Police Detective Lt. Richard S. Walter.

Walter said he could not be more specific about the nature of those issues; Amberleigh's executive director previously told The Buffalo News that Virginia Bunz was in good health for her age but had been slowed by a hip injury.

"She gets agitated -- he gets agitated," Walter said in explaining the crime. "At some point, he gets a hammer from somewhere in the home."

John Bunz hit his wife about 30 times with the hammer, police and prosecutors said, first in the hands as she tried to defend herself and then repeatedly in the head.

"It was an extremely violent crime scene," Walter said.

Virginia Bunz died from blunt-force trauma from the beating, but John Bunz still grabbed a pillow afterward and held it over her face "to make sure the job was done," Walter said.

He then grabbed a kitchen knife and cut himself above his eyes, on his neck and on his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt.

Their daughter found the couple at about 10 a.m.

Bunz admitted his role in the slaying to Detective Sgt. John J. Piracci and Detective James D. Jackson at Erie County Medical Center, where he was taken for treatment.

"I would say he was remorseful but matter-of-fact," Walter said.

A round of psychiatric examinations determined Bunz was competent to stand trial, though his physical condition appears to have deteriorated over the last six months.

At his arraignment in Amherst Town Court, Bunz was able to slowly move around the courtroom with the use of a walker. Wednesday, he stumbled before getting into a chair for the proceeding and again when he tried to get back into his wheelchair.

A 'tragic anomaly'

In court, prosecutor Paul E. Bonanno emphasized the brutal violence of the attack in asking for a sentence of at least 20 years in prison.

Defense attorney David C. Steinhilber described his client as a good man, a good husband and a good father.

"It was a horrible, tragic anomaly in an otherwise good and decent life. It defies logic or explanation, and it is something that John and his family will grapple with all the rest of their days," said Steinhilber, who declined further comment later.

Bunz, who remained seated throughout the brief sentencing, did not appear to react when State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia issued the sentence of 17 1/2 years.

Bonanno said that the Bunzes' son and daughter agreed to their father's guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter.

Neither child attended the court session, and the daughter declined to comment when The News reached her afterward.

After the sentencing, Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said we may never get a good explanation for why someone of Bunz's age committed such a vicious homicide.

The district attorney said that he recognizes that this is likely a "death sentence" for Bunz but that he deserved lengthy incarceration because of the savageness of the crime.

"This was not a mercy killing. This was not a gentle killing. This was not, as far as we know, part of any [murder-suicide] pact," Sedita said. "This was an extraordinarily violent act."

What happens to a 90-year-old who is sentenced to prison?

Based solely on his crime and the length of his sentence, Bunz would be classified as a maximum-security inmate, said Linda M. Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

And elderly inmates aren't unilaterally segregated from the general prison population.

However, all inmates undergo testing that includes medical and mental health assessments upon their entry into the prison system, Foglia said.

Accommodating needs

If it is apparent that Bunz has special needs, such as a wheelchair, she said, the state has several prison facilities that can accommodate him.

And the state takes into account a prisoner's physical abilities when assigning housing and work responsibilities, she said.

"We'll pay attention to the environment that a 90-year-old needs," Foglia said.

When Bunz begins his sentence, he will be the second-oldest inmate in a New York State prison, after Theodore A. Sypnier, according to department records.

Sypnier, a 101-year-old convicted pedophile from this area, was sent back to prison on a parole violation and is serving two years at Groveland Correctional Facility in Livingston County.

A Niagara Falls man, Otes G. Rodriguez, is third on the current list at 86 years old. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for pouring gasoline on a woman and trying to light her on fire by using a flare gun.

Rodriguez was 80 at the time of the 2004 attack and previously served prison sentences for the 1959 murder of his wife and the 1973 murder of his girlfriend.

The three local men are part of the overall graying of the prison population that comes as more states have introduced prison sentences of life without the possibility of parole, said Jill M. D'Angelo, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Buffalo State College.

It is more expensive to take care of prisoners who have Alzheimer's disease, physical infirmities or other medical issues associated with aging, D'Angelo said.

Elderly prisoners are vulnerable if left in the general population, she said, but it's not necessarily in society's interest to let killers go free because they were old at the time of the crime.

"Should he just be sent home ... ?" D'Angelo asked. "No."

swatson@buffnews.com; mgryta@buffnews.comnull