By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey dentist behind a schemeto steal body parts from corpses, including that of journalistAlistair Cooke, was sentenced on Friday to a minimum of 18years and a maximum of 54 years in prison.
Michael Mastromarino, 44, in March admitted to leading a$4.6 million (2.3 billion pounds) operation that stole bodyparts from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey andPennsylvania.
The ring dismembered more than 1,000 cadavers in unsanitaryconditions, and sold them to doctors who transplanted them intopatients.
"I am sorry for the emotional pain I have caused,"Mastromarino told the court, repeating an apology he made tovictims and relatives of the dead earlier this month.
State Supreme Court Judge John Walsh made no comment as hesentenced Mastromarino, who had pleaded guilty to bodystealing, reckless endangerment and enterprise corruption.
"His sick, disgusting and appalling actions all in the nameof greed have devastated my family," Dayna Ryan, 44, told thecourt.
Ryan contracted Hepatitis B when she was a recipient ofstolen body parts during a lower spine operation.
As part of the scheme, a team of so-called cutters removedbones, skin and tendons in an unsanitary embalming room,prosecutors said.
"He fully recognized the gravity of what he has done,"Mastromarino's lawyer Mario Gallucci said outside court. "Hecut some corners and that is why he is here today."
There are three co-defendants. One pleaded guilty, anotherwas convicted at trial and the third is awaiting trial.
Cooke, the former newspaper foreign correspondent and hostof the PBS television show "Masterpiece Theatre" and BBC's"Letter from America," died in 2004 at age 95 in New York.
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
