Former Belmont man gets 12 months in jail for anti-Semitic tirade at Tilton store

LACONIA — A former Belmont man was sentenced to 12 months in the Belknap County House of Correction yesterday after being convicted by a jury of two counts of misdemeanor criminal threatening that were classified as hate crimes.

According to testimony and indictments, Paul Costella, 39, was a customer at the automotive department of Walmart in Tilton in November of 2012 when he became angered by an employee and went on an anti-Semitic rant, saying he was going to get a gun and "kill the Jews."

After an investigation by the Tilton Police, Costella was indicted by a Belknap County grand jury on June 3, 2011. He was tried by a jury in January of 2012, but the trial ended in a mistrial on January 19 after the jurors could not reach a unanimous decision.

Belknap County Prosecutor Melissa Guldbrandsen brought Costella to trial for a second time in October of 2012 and he was convicted on October 25, 2012 of two enhanced misdemeanors counts of criminal threatening and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

Costella maintained his innocence. In a phone call to The Daily Sun made the day before his sentencing, he said he had waited 45 minutes for an oil change and a female employee at Walmart noticed a picture of him and his daughter in his car posing with a flag that had a swastika.

He said the woman assumed he was a Nazi and confronted him. "She started calling me a Nazi and a skin head," Costella said.

He also said that during his pre-sentencing investigation, he expected Judge James O'Neill to order him to write a letter of apology to the three Walmart employees affected by his rant and he said he wasn't going to do that because he didn't do what they said he did.

"I'm not like that person," he said.

In fact, as part of Costella's sentencing yesterday, O'Neill ordered him to write a letter of apology as a condition of his sentence despite his attorney's previous argument that she didn't think it was appropriate.

Costella's complete sentence was no jail time for the disorderly conduct charge. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine plus $120 in court costs with half of it suspended on good behavior.

For the first criminal threatening conviction he was sentenced to 12 months in the Belknap County House of Corrections. He must serve at least three months before he is eligible for a home confinement bracelet. O'Neill said the Department of Corrections could consider work release as long as he completed anger management therapy and drug and alcohol treatment.

On the last criminal threatening conviction, Costella was sentenced to two to five years in the N.H. State Prison to be served consecutive to his House of Corrections sentence. The state prison sentence was all suspended pending his completion of the above conditions and his continued good behavior for 10 years.