The Rockville man who pleaded guilty to killing his two neighbors and then left the state on an Alaskan cruise with his parents will spend the rest of his life in prison for the crimes.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John Debelius on Tuesday sentenced Scott Tomaszewski to two consecutive life sentences for killing 65-year-old Richard and 67-year-old Julianne Vilardo inside their Rockville home in May 2015. The life sentence for killing Richard was handed down without the possibility of parole—and prosecutors said there’s no chance Tomaszewski would be released.
As the verdict was read, more than 100 family and friends of the Vilardos who had gathered for the sentencing hearing yelled “Yes!”
In September, Tomaszewski, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killing the Vilardos. No new information emerged Tuesday about why he killed the couple. In handing down his sentence, Debelius said, “I searched, I listened, I heard no explanation for this crime.”
Describing the crime as savage and brutal, Debelius said he could not imagine how the Vilardos suffered as they were stabbed and slashed dozens of times by Tomaszewski, who wielded a pocket knife and a 2-foot-long machete.
“The crime was unspeakable. It was horrific,” Debelius said.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said the murders would have qualified for the death penalty had it not been abolished by the state legislature four years ago. He noted Brittany Norwood—the Lulelemon killer—was the last person in the county to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Photo: Dick and Jody Vilardo with their daughter Katherine and son Andrew. Provided photo
During the hearing, the Vilardos—who were known as Dick and Jody to family and friends—were remembered by their children, Andrew and Katherine Vilardo, as loving parents who doted on Andrew’s two children. Both Katherine and Andrew delivered victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing before Debelius sentenced Tomaszewski.
“On the morning of May 10, I was expecting to share Mother’s Day with my family,” Katherine said. Instead, she discovered her parents’ bodies at her childhood home on Ridge Road in Rockville. She described the scene as “a real-life horror movie.”
Katherine’s sister-in-law, Lindsay Vilardo, said she and Andrew were driving to the house when Katherine discovered the bodies and called the couple on her phone. Lindsay said she was unable to turn off the Bluetooth device in her car before Katherine screamed, “They’re dead!” She said Andrew screamed immediately as well, sounds that continue to haunt her. When the call came, Andrew and Lindsay’s 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter were in the backseat.
“I had to tell my 3-year-old son that Nana and Papa were dead,” Lindsay said. “I had to tell him what heaven was.”
Andrew Vilardo described Tomaszewski as a coward who does not deserve to be called a man.
“He is a monster,” Andrew said.
During the plea hearing in September, John McCarthy described the brutal murders. The county’s top prosecutor, who personally handled the case, said Tomaszewski broke into his next-door neighbors’ home around 1 a.m. May 10 and slashed them to death.
The couple were discovered later that day by their two children, after they failed to show up for a Mother’s Day hike and picnic at Great Falls Park.
After the killings, Tomaszewski left on a planned Alaskan cruise with his parents—whom he lived with at the Ridge Road house in the suburban Rockville neighborhood.
County police investigating the murders were able to quickly link Tomaszewski to a burglary that happened in the neighborhood the month before. Two detectives then traveled to Alaska and took Tomaszewski off the cruise ship to be interviewed. On the ship, they found money with blood stains, which tests later determined matched Dick Vilardo’s DNA, among Tomaszewski possessions. In a subsequent interview, Tomaszewski admitted to the killing.
At the home of Tomaszewski’s parents, investigators found clothes they said he wore during the attack—including a pair of gloves with a hexagonal pattern that matched blood stains found in the Vilardos’ home, according to police.
“This was tremendous police work,” McCarthy said.
When Tomaszewski, who slouched through most of the sentencing hearing in a green jumpsuit, stood to address the courtroom, the Vilardo family walked out. He told the court he didn’t remember any part of the killings.
“I had no animosity toward my neighbors and I never fantasized about their deaths,” he said. He said, though, he accepted that he committed the crime, adding that he “deserved to be locked up.”
He said he did not believe the multiple psychological evaluations he had received had accurately assessed his mental state. He mentioned in a letter to the judge that was discussed before the hearing that he suffered head injuries in a car crash and near-drowning incident in the two years before the murders.
But Tomaszewski, when asked directly by the judge, said he did not wish to withdraw his plea and accepted responsibility that he committed the killings.
McCarthy dismissed the medical incidents, saying Tomaszewski had been evaluated by multiple doctors who determined he was fit to stand trial.
During the hearing, Katherine Vilardo gave an extended presentation about her parents’ lives. She said Dick Vilardo had excelled in his career as a real estate and hotel developer, while Jody worked as an accountant. The family lived by the motto, “Friends are family and family is everything.”
In court, a montage of pictures played that showed the family on vacation, during holiday gatherings, golfing and at sports games. The montage ended on a picture of Andrew, Lindsay, Katherine, Dick, Jody and Andrew’s children at the home where Dick and Jody were murdered.
Katherine described the family as happy and filled with joy at the time of the photo, but says the memory is now bittersweet.
“We were seated in front of the window this monster used to enter our home,” Katherine said. “I can never forget that.”
Image above left: Scott Tomaszewski
