James Alberto seen after being convicted of first-degree murder by a Luzerne County jury on Nov. 8. Ed Lewis | Times Leader
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Admitted killer Charles Bierly was sentenced to 45 to 90 years in prison for fatally stabbing Judith Comisky. Ed Lewis | Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — The mastermind behind the fatal stabbing of Judith Comisky inside her South Wilkes-Barre home in 2021 has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough on Thursday sentenced James “Hollywood” Alberto, 35, to life in prison on a first-degree murder conviction in addition to 26-to-52 years behind bars for criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and burglary. A jury convicted Alberto following a four-day trial in November.
Wilkes-Barre police detectives accused Alberto of recruiting Charles Bierly, 25, to kill Comisky, 52, just hours before she was fatally stabbed and slashed multiple times inside her Willow Street home on Sept. 16, 2021.
During the trial, assistant district attorneys Drew McLaughlin and Julian Truskowski presented surveillance footage showing Alberto and Bierly meeting at US Gas at North Pennsylvania Avenue and Butler Street.
Footage showed Alberto and Bierly giving each other a fist bump, before Bierly leaves to drive to Willow Street parking a short distance away from Comisky’s home.
Surveillance cameras from Willow Street captured Bierly having trouble using a keypad lock on a side door to Comisky’s home.
Bierly, who initially claimed Alberto threatened to rape his girlfriend and kill him unless he killed Comisky, changed his story during a trial prep session a day after Alberto’s trial began.
Bierly testified he was a “muscle for hire” and Alberto offered him $15,000, four ounces of fentanyl, four firearms and a vehicle in exchange for killing Comisky.
Alberto wanted Comisky killed as he wrongfully believed she was an informant, McLaughlin and Truskowski said during the trial.
Bierly told the jury that after having trouble with the keypad lock he knocked on the door, telling Comisky his vehicle was disabled. Once inside, Bierly said a firearm Alberto gave him misfired, and he grabbed knives from the kitchen, which he used to repeatedly stab Comisky until she died.
Bierly disposed of the knives and firearm in the Susquehanna River near the Nanticoke-West Nanticoke Bridge, where they were recovered by investigators.
Bierly was previously sentenced to 45 to 90 years in state prison on charges of third-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and illegal possession of a firearm.