Astor's son jailed for looting her fortune

The 85-year-old son of Brooke Astor was jailed for up to three years for exploiting the philanthropist’s mental frailty to plunder her millions.

Former US ambassador and Broadway producer Anthony Marshall showed little emotion as state Supreme Court Justice Kirke Bartley sentenced him in New York to one to three years in prison – the minimum term his conviction required – for looting his mother’s fortune.

She gave away nearly $200m (€140m) to institutions and charities before she died at 105 in 2007.

Ms Astor was seen as the queen of New York society and a power in the city’s philanthropic scene, supporting such grand institutions as Carnegie Hall and such humble needs as a new boiler for a youth centre.

Her efforts won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US’ highest civilian honour, in 1998.

Marshall will remain free for at least the next month as his defence lawyers try to persuade an appeal court to let him stay free on bail indefinitely while his planned appeal plays out.

The judge noted Marshall’s Second World War service and the possibility that the late Ms Astor herself would have been aghast to see her son imprisoned, but added that the law left him no choice but to impose a prison term.

“It is a paradox to me that such abundance has led to such incredible sadness,” he said. He gave Marshall until January 19 to provide his medical information to prison officials and otherwise prepare for life behind bars.

Marshall declined to speak at his sentencing, where prosecutors described him as an unrepentant thief who deserved punishment, while his lawyers strove to portray him as a dutiful son who believed his mother wanted him to have the money and items he was convicted of stealing.

Before leaving court, the stooped, unsteady Marshall sat for a minute on a bench in the courtroom audience, the arm of his tearful wife Charlene around his shoulders. He nearly stumbled over a pile of snow as the pair walked to a waiting car.

Co-defendant Francis Morrissey, 67, an estates lawyer convicted of helping Marshall steal his mother’s money, was also sentenced to one to three years in prison. Like Marshall, Morrissey will remain free until January 19 and is planning to appeal.

Marshall had faced as many as 25 years in prison after being convicted of 14 counts, including grand larceny and scheming to defraud, for looting his mother’s fortune. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease when she died.

In the final year of her life, a family feud over her care was splashed all over the city’s tabloids – including allegations that she was forced to sleep in a torn nightgown on a couch that smelled of urine while subsisting on a diet of pureed peas and oatmeal.

Those allegations were never substantiated, but they led to the criminal case over her finances.

The claims were initially broached by one of Marshall’s sons, Philip, who later gave evidence against his father in what the judge called “one of the saddest moments I have ever seen in this court”.

Defence lawyers have said myriad illnesses would make any prison term a virtual death sentence for Marshall, who was wounded while leading a Marine platoon in the battle of Iwo Jima.

Marshall’s October 8 conviction followed a five-month trial in which Manhattan prosecutors painted him as an impatient heir who schemed to get his hands on his disoriented mother’s money, though she had already provided for him generously.

Prosecutors – who brought in prominent Astor friends such as TV personality Barbara Walters and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger to help make their case – say Marshall manipulated Ms Astor into changing her will and even helped himself to artwork from her walls, largely to benefit a wife she disliked.

The will changes alone steered him tens of millions of dollars previously destined for charities, prosecutors say.

Defence lawyers said Marshall had the legal power to give himself gifts with his mother’s money and she was lucid when she changed her will to benefit her only child.

After his conviction Marshall revealed details of his life – from childhood sorrows to his current health problems – and lined up some celebrity supporters of his own in a bid to stay free.

Actress Whoopi Goldberg, a neighbour, told the judge in a letter that jailing him “would only amount to an unnecessary cruelty that would serve no real purpose”.

Meanwhile, a fight over Ms Astor’s estate, on hold during the criminal case, continues in civil court, pitting Marshall against several charities.