Inset: Nancy Giles (WTAJ/YouTube). Background: Brian Giles being escorted out of a Pennsylvania courtroom (WJAC/YouTube).
A Pennsylvania man convicted of killing his wife was booted out of a courtroom on Tuesday for disrupting his sentencing hearing at which he learned he will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder.
Brian Giles, 48, said, “Oh, I’m so scared” on Tuesday in a Cambria County courtroom before telling Judge Tamara Bernstein to “get on with it” and give him his punishment in the murder of his wife, Nancy Giles, 40, The Tribune-Democrat reported.
He cursed at prosecutors and his court-appointed defense attorneys before he was escorted out, ranting, the newspaper reported.
“I understand Mr. Giles’ outbursts are disconcerting and unsettling,” Bernstein said, telling the victim’s family she hopes the sentence brings peace.
Nancy Giles’ mother, Peggy Singer, called it “a happy day for Nancy,” local FOX affiliate WWCP reported.
As Brian Giles was being escorted out of the courtroom, local NBC affiliate WJAC’s chief photographer asked him why he was mad.
“I’m not mad,” Brian Giles responded. “I’m innocent, and I know I’m innocent. Sooner or later, they’ll find out that it’s true.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Nancy Giles disappeared in October 2018. Her remains were found in a shallow grave near a trail in Johnstown the following May. Brian Giles was charged in the case in May 2022.
Brian Giles told officers his wife fell in the shower and hit her head, and he buried her body, WJAC reported. But he gave shifting stories over time.
“The only consistencies from October 2018 to last week are Brian’s inconsistencies,” Johnstown Police Detective Sgt. Cory Adams testified, the Tribune-Democrat reported. “Brian keeps trying to tell more stories to try and make himself look like the victim in this homicide.”
He was found guilty in June of first-degree murder, with jurors rejecting his defense that the investigation lacked physical evidence tying him to the crime and there were no witnesses, WJAC reported.
The story took a major twist when, a day after he was convicted, authorities found the remains of his girlfriend, Jilly Todaro, 43, in his home with whom he lived after Nancy Giles’ disappearance, Law&Crime reported. No charges have been filed in Todaro’s death.
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