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Hours after admitting her role in the 1983 slaying of her abusive husband, Michael La Pinta, Marie La Pinta, 69, carrying a bouquet of red roses and flanked by her two grown sons, walked into her home a free woman.

"We're happy as happy can be," said Anthony La Pinta, the Hauppauge attorney who successfully argued a motion that got his mother's murder conviction overturned last month.

As Anthony talked with reporters outside his brother's Harp Lane house, where his mom will be staying, she gleefully played with a dog that jumped to greet her. "This is the best ever," he said.

In an emotional courtroom scene earlier, Marie La Pinta pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. In return, she will be sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years, which she's already served. Afterward, Lenny La Pinta said it was the end of a "long, painful journey.

"I really feel we lost her in body and her being around in our daily lives, but we never lost the bond between a mother and her two sons," he said. "We never lost faith."

But although the courtroom scene was one of hugs and joyful tears, in North Babylon, Michael La Pinta's brother, Leonard, said his family felt "hurt" and "terrible" over the plea deal.

"He's not here to defend himself. My brother was a loving husband and a hard worker," said Leonard La Pinta, 75. "I understand about her being a model prisoner, but the [original] judge imposed a term of 25 to life. ... It's wrong."

He disputed allegations that his brother beat and imprisoned his sister-in-law during their 27-year marriage.

"She was not a battered woman," he said, but acknowledged that "I didn't see what went on behind closed doors." Other members of Michael La Pinta's family, including his mother, have supported efforts to free Marie La Pinta. Anthony La Pinta said his uncle was estranged from the family for 25 years before the murder.

Marie La Pinta entered the courtroom wearing a dark blue suit with a long skirt, glasses and handcuffs. As soon as the cuffs were removed, she blew a big, animated kiss to Anthony and Lenny, who sat beaming in the front row.

Marie La Pinta did not speak, other than to reply "yes" to the prosecutor's questions regarding her actions the night her husband was killed. She confirmed that her husband was involved in a fight with her brother, Leonard Crociata; that she hit her husband with a baseball bat during the scuffle; and that after Crociata shot her husband dead, she helped dispose of his body at the local dump.

In his motion, Anthony La Pinta argued that his mother had long been the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, and that if she'd had adequate legal representation, the jury in her murder trial should have been informed of that fact.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle agreed with the argument and overturned the conviction. In court yesterday, Doyle said that had the "battered woman" defense been available at the time of La Pinta's conviction, she would have faced "a conviction of a lesser offense."

District Attorney Thomas Spota gave his blessing to the reversal of the conviction, and helped craft a deal to have La Pinta return home.

"It's a happy day for all of us when we could see that something was done the way it should be done," Spota said outside the courtroom. "Today, justice was done."

After Marie La Pinta pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge, Assistant District Attorney Emily Constant read a statement in court.

"It is often said that the role of a prosecutor is not simply to obtain convictions, but to seek justice, and that the role of a judge is to temper justice with mercy," Constant said, her voice quivering. "Today, in this courtroom, we don't just speak those words, we act on them.

"She is no threat to society," Constant added. "It is time for her to go home."

Doyle agreed, and released La Pinta without bail until her June 20 sentencing date. He also commended Anthony La Pinta for his efforts in defending his mother.

"You have been well represented in this case," Doyle told Marie La Pinta. "Your attorney will have many more cases in his career, but he'll never have a case of greater significance."

Wringing his hands in the court gallery, Anthony La Pinta welled up with tears.

About two hours later, from the back of a car, La Pinta got her first glimpse of the world she left more than two decades ago. Lenny La Pinta said his mother marveled at how the two-lane Sunrise Highway she knew was now a major thoroughfare. She held a cell phone in her hand for the first time, in awe of its technology. She asked what a Home Depot was.

"She's absolutely mesmerized by the concept of the Internet," Anthony La Pinta said yesterday evening. "It's almost like magic, she says."

Once home, Anthony La Pinta extended a hand to help his mother out of the car. She smiled meekly at reporters, then walked inside, followed soon afterward by Anthony and Lenny, arms draped over each other.

"It's a surreal situation," Anthony La Pinta said. "And we're just loving every minute of it."

La Pinta's role in the crime

As part of entering her guilty plea in court to a charge of manslaughter in the death of her husband, Marie La Pinta answered several questions in court yesterday from prosecutor Emily Constant about what happened on the night of March 27, 1983.

Constant: Was there an argument between your brother and husband that resulted from your brother being at your home?

La Pinta: Yes.

Constant: During the course of that argument, did you hit your husband with a baseball bat, intending to cause him serious physical injury?

La Pinta: Yes.

Constant: Did your brother shoot your husband?

La Pinta: Yes.

Constant: Did your husband die as a result of these actions?

La Pinta: Yes.

Constant: After your brother shot your husband, did you assist in removing the body from the house?

La Pinta: Yes.

Constant: Did you help your brother dispose of your husband's body in the local dump?

La Pinta: Yes.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.