'I don't forgive you': Leonia man sentenced to 35 years in fatal stabbing

The words of 35-year-old Alicia Arnone's parents and daughter were not words of forgiveness but of sorrow and anger, most of them directed at one person: Nile Diakos.

The Leonia man will spend 30 years in state prison for the brutal stabbing death of his girlfriend in March 2022 and an additional five years for a Passaic County gun charge. The murder and gun charges will run concurrently with a stalking charge out of Passaic County.

Diakos pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April, admitting to stabbing Arnone numerous times in her head and neck. Her body, stripped down to just underwear, was found by her teenage daughter, tied to a kitchen chair in a pool of blood at the top of the stairs.

Arnone's ex-boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, was initially arrested in her death, but charges were dropped not long after when Arnone's daughter recanted her eyewitness statement. The juvenile had originally said she had seen her mother tied to a chair and Daniels standing next to her, giving her a menacing look.

Arnone's father, Peter Arnone Jr., addressed the court, telling Diakos that his heart was ripped out of his chest when he lost her and that the only way there could be closure is if he got his daughter back.

"I don't forgive you," said Peter Arnone Jr. "Why would I? If given the chance, I would murder you myself with my bare hands with a smile on my face and take my lumps as they come."

He told Diakos he hopes he spends his time in prison looking over his shoulder and that he hopes "prison justice does what American justice could not do."

Both of Arnone's parents said a number of state agencies failed their daughter by not protecting her when she reached out to them.

Arnone's mother, Karen, asked for a minute of silence for her daughter. When it was finished, she talked about the bond they had, the phone calls they shared and how dreams of retirement have disappeared because she is the caretaker of her granddaughter.

"You showed no remorse as you admitted to violently and brutally murdering my child by stabbing her multiple times," Karen Arnone said. "You left a 13-year-old child to discover her mother's brutally murdered body."

She told the court of how her family has suffered since her daughter's death.

"My hope is that every day for the rest of your life, you remember my daughter's face and her eyes when she pled for her life and you stole it," Karen Arnone told Diakos. "I hope this keeps you awake at night and influences you every day."

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Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Howland called the murder of Arnone "especially heinous," "cruel" and "depraved."

"It's not your typical murder," Howland said. "There is a certain level of hatred and passion behind it. [Diakos] wanted the victim to suffer. This was not a quick death. This took her life and every breath she had."

During his sentencing before state Superior Court Judge Susan Steele, Diakos' attorney, Kathleen Theurer, told Steele that although there are no diagnosed mental health issues, her client was not in good mental health and admitted to abusing crack cocaine and prescription pills at the time of the murder.

Theurer told the court that Diakos did not have a happy childhood, beginning mental health and substance abuse treatment around the age of 11 or 12, and was abused "terribly."

Theurer also argued against the prosecution's submission that Diakos' confession was "gloating," saying that Diakos has stood before the court "and taken full responsibility for the murder and his taking the life of Ms. Arnone."

The trauma Diakos caused was not lost on him, Theurer said.

"I understand that those words coming from me on behalf of my client may very well be empty to the people that have come here today," she said, "but I would imagine my client not expressing those words might be even more empty."

She said Diakos isn't someone who maybe "had the skills to say, 'I need to express to somebody this awful, terrible thing I did. I feel awful.'"

Howland told the court that Diakos' escalation was building for decades. She pointed to his leading police on a chase in the gun charge and showing up at a different romantic partner's home and work and leaving her "frightening voicemails," saying he was going to shoot her in the head. A month and a half later, Arnone was killed.

She disagreed with Theurer's argument about Diakos' mental health, pointing to a recorded phone conversation handed over to police just days after the killing. She said Diakos told his friend he stabbed Arnone because he had to send a message to a different romantic partner.

"He took a life to send a message? That he's not someone to be messed with?" Howland said. "That was what he needed to do. He needed to stab Alicia nine times in the head, neck and chest. Nine stab wounds. It is repeated and it is horrific."

During the sentencing, Arnone's 14-year-old daughter told Diakos she hated him, calling him the "scum of the Earth."

"Do you know how hard it is to live without your mom? The only person that was there for you?" Arnone's daughter said. "I have to go to high school, college, and if I want to get married, I won't have my mom."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Leonia NJ murder case ends in 35-year prison sentence